


Dragon Egg

by Anonymous



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Diakko, Dragon Egg, F/F, Hydra, It's not the one inside the egg though, Side charioix, Smut, a dragon dies, familiar, side hamanda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 09:30:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16238861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Akko finds herself without a familiar with Familiars Day only a week away. She decides to go search for one in the forest, finding something quite precious instead.





	1. In need of a familiar.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're bothered by lewd stuff or are here just because of that: You'll find that only on the last chapter - It's pretty much its own thing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko messes up, then realizes she needs a familiar.

It was a normal Monday at Luna Nova. Classes had started a short time ago, the morning sun bathed the classroom with its warmth, birds singed, the trees outside swayed slightly with the breeze and Akko’s potion was on fire.

She was desperately trying to put it out when, as usual, it exploded.

Over the past year she had seen progress in her studies. She didn’t fail as many classes, she didn’t steal as much food, and she had learned to fly quite well. The biggest problem was that, while all of this was thanks to hard work and effort, her nature still remained; that of being a distracted, hyperactive girl.

So, when the instructions had said equal parts of sunflower seeds and spider eggs, she had assumed it meant she should have the same number of eggs and seeds, not bothering to measure the two ingredients.

Taking her wand out, she dissipated the toxic cloud. She had gotten quite proficient at that. As per usual, she checked her body, making sure she wasn’t afflicted with some deadly side effect.

Professor Lukić nodded, as if she had expected the result. Akko’s classmates had gotten used to stepping a few steps further than usual during these classes, and Akko herself just grunted in frustration re-reading the instructions.

“Akko.” Lotte said, stepping a little closer. Akko saw a little spider crawling through her orange hair, but didn’t point it out. “Use this for the measurements.” She offered the brunette a tea spoon. Akko was about to point out that she had one, but when she looked down, she noticed that all her utensils had turned into weird green goo that was slowly running down the desk, about to fall to the floor.

“Thanks Lotte.” She said, sighing. This time it had _not_ been her fault! The instructions weren’t clear enough! Not that professor Lukić would accept that excuse, though.

However, even if fifteen minutes later than everyone else, she did manage to finish the potion. When the Professor took a little rusty metal rod and dipped it in the brewage it came out as good as new, and the potion changed colour from a deep purple to a slightly brighter violet. Not that she was able to tell the difference: To her, both colours were purple.

This time, Lukić nodded in approval, taking some notes. Letting out a sigh of relief, Akko relaxed on her chair, and with the chemical danger gone, Sucy and Lotte moved closer to her again.

“Right on time.” Lotte commented as the recess started. Sucy smelled the potion, scrunching her nose.

“This is too acid. You’re lucky the professor didn’t leave the rod for a few seconds more or it would have come to life.” She commented, shaking her head.

“Hey, as long as she doesn’t notice…” Akko shrugged. She had done it well enough in her book.

“That is not an attitude you should take moving forward, Akko.” A voice came from behind. A well known voice. “I advice you proceed more carefully from now on. If you had done that from the beginning you would have avoided causing such a hassle, saved fifteen minutes of your time and maybe even gotten a better score.”

Akko slowly turned her head, and as she expected, Diana Cavendish was standing behind her. “Thanks for the tip, Diana.” She said not able to hold back some sarcasm from slipping into her voice. While she had come to understand that the blonde and tea-green haired girl was only trying to help, she couldn’t help feeling a little looked down upon. Though, by that same principle, whenever Diana praised her, she felt way more apt than she actually was. A weird relationship, in her mind, but one she cherished none the less.

The usual pair of girls stood behind Diana, too. Akko still half expected them to drop some kind of mean comment at her, but they both just simply shook their heads. Hannah and Barbara had been rather friendlier with her since what she called ‘The Diana Incident’ last year, but they still found it hard to treat Akko as an equal.

Still, Akko appreciated their efforts to be less mean, even if they didn’t always manage to keep their taunts quiet.

Diana’s neutral expression raised an eyebrow as she looked down at Akko. “I believe you should look at your skirt.” She said.

Akko looked, and instantly stood with a disgusted expression. “I thought I’d gotten all of it! Stupid potion!” She cried as she tried to wipe the green stain in her purple uniform.

“I doubt you’ll be able to clean pure metal from your skirt with just a hand, Akko.” Sucy stated. “Maybe you should try your tongue.” She chuckled, but Akko didn’t pay attention.

“It’s hard.” Lotte said, touching the stain. Akko tried to take it off with her nails, and only managed to rip her skirt.

“Aw darn it!” Akko grunted in frustration. “Well, whatever, I’ll just put it in the laundry basket.” She sat back down, annoyed. Now she’d have to go the entire day with that stupid green spot on her uniform.

Diana laid a hand on Akko’s shoulder and cleared her throat.

“May I have a look at it?” She asked. Akko looked up, sighing internally.

“Yeah, sure.” She said, standing up again and facing Diana, carefully avoiding to look at her eyes. The blonde looked at it for a few seconds and took out her wand. She pronounced a spell – one Akko had never heard before – and then stepped back.

When looking down, Akko raised an eyebrow. The stain was still there.

“I see.” Diana nodded slightly, raising a hand to her chin. “Its magical properties make it resistant to magic, how interesting.”

“So what you’re saying is that nothing will be able to remove this stain, is that it?” Akko slumped back into the chair.

“I wouldn’t say that. May I try another thing?” Diana asked. The brunette rolled her eyes and stood up yet again. The blonde, this time, took a step back and pointed her wand directly at the stain. She casted a spell, and when Akko looked down this time, the entire section where the stain had been was lost.

“W-wait! Diana, you just broke my uniform!” Akko panicked. She didn’t have the money to buy another one right now! Oh no, what had gotten into Diana? Had she gotten mad she couldn’t fix it at her first attempt? That was not something Akko saw as likely, but then again, she didn’t remember ever seeing Diana fail at anything…

“Be quiet, Akko.” Diana put a hand on her shoulder. “I just removed the problem entirely to be able to do this.” She then pointed her wand at the skirt again, casting another spell.

The threads of the piece of clothing started to weave themselves. It only took about ten seconds for the hole to be fully gone.

“Wow.” Akko touched the place where the hole had been. It felt perfect. “Thanks, Diana. It’s perfect now.” She said begrudgingly. Of course Diana would know how to fix it.

“It may seem perfect now, but the total thickness of the skirt has diminished a little, so it will be weaker from now on.” The blonde explained. Sucy mumbled something under her breath, and Lotte touched Akko’s skirt trying to feel the difference.

“Oh, don’t be so humble.” Barbara was looking at the skirt with some interest too. “Such a little hole won’t make a big difference. She really saved your ass, Akko, you should be thankful.”

“I know.” Akko grunted. She tried not to snap at them, but it was hard. Whenever Diana helped her, she felt like she would never be able to compare. And how could she? Diana was at the top, and she worked harder than anyone else. Most of the time Akko used that as a motivation to get better, but in situations like this, the gap between them just appeared to be infinite. She was just _that_ amazing.

However, she didn’t let that discourage her for long. As always, before next class started, she had basically forgotten about the whole ordeal. Professor Finnelan entered the classroom with a stack of papers, and for a second Akko panicked. Was there a test she had forgotten today? No way, she had been very careful to take notes on every test day! She had forgotten to check it today though… No, no. She should at least have a notion of when it was going to be, even if she didn’t remember the day. This was something else, probably. Hopefully.

“Before we start with the class,” the professor said in her usual stuck-up voice, looking at all the students present. “I will hand out the Familiar Applications. As you know, next week we’ll have an event where you will be able to summon them and show them off to other students. However, we need authorization to do so from some of the higher-ranked witches in the country. Each of you will fill the form and explain with detail everything your familiar is able to do; should something go wrong, we want to be prepared.”

Excited noises were heard throughout the classroom. Familiar day was something they haven’t done in centuries due to the lack of resources, but now that magic was getting better again…

Not that it mattered to Akko. She froze, coming to the sudden realization: She had no familiar. She had been meaning to get some kind of bird, like Chariot, but, well, she never got around to do it…

The paper sheets started to get passed around, and Akko took hers, looking at it with nervousness. Was she going to be the only one with no familiar? She knew that Sucy had a rattlesnake as one, and Lotte had a wolf. Diana, of course, had her unicorn. But what about the others? Amanda surely had one, and her teammates too. She looked around the classroom, trying to see if anyone appeared particularly nervous.

She found no one.

“You have until Friday to turn them in. You will be allowed to summon your familiars outside during this week, but for a short period of time, and only to test exactly what they can do, so that you may be sure of what to write on your Familiar Applications.” Finnelan’s voice made every student hush. Slowly, class started. Some murmurs were still heard, but no one was too daring during Finnelan’s classes.

 

“How does one go about getting a familiar?” Akko asked Lotte as they walked through the busy hallways. Lotte eyed the brunette as if she had expected the question.

“Well, it’s not that hard. If you form a strong enough connection with an animal, your magic will naturally bond you two.” The redhead explained.

“Assuming it doesn’t bite your fingers off eventually. Being you, I doubt any animal would want to spend more than about two hours in your vicinity.” Sucy joked with a smirk.

“Well I’ll let you know that I have a dog at home and he likes me a lot!” Akko said, sticking her tongue out. She dodged a group of students as she walked, starting to wonder if the bonding process could be done in under a week. As they walked down to the cafeteria, however, Akko saw something out a window. From where she was, she could swear it was a giant, white and beautiful bird. It was too far to tell, but as far as she was concerned, it might have been simply a damn giant dove: She got excited. Destiny! To think about getting a familiar and to see that while wondering about it could be nothing but destiny!

Lotte and Sucy noticed her staring, and looked out the window too. The bird, however, was gone from sight.

“Akko, is everything fine?” Lotte asked. Nodding, Akko smiled internally as a plan started to hatch in her mind.

 

Akko went out at twilight. Due to the nature of fall, where mornings were cold, days hot and then nights cold again, she had a cloak with her, even if it wasn’t quite needed yet. Well, she guessed that morning and night were technically the same. But that was not the point here.

She sat on her broom and took off towards the forest. She had gotten quite proficient at flying, thanks to Amanda’s and Diana’s assistance. She still wasn’t nearly skilled enough to compete against the two, but she didn’t mind that. She was happy to be able to fly.

Little things in the forest kept distracting her as she flew. Trees with glowing leaves, weird animals, sounds she didn’t recognize. The barrier between normal forest and the Arcturus forest had slowly disappeared over the past year. There was no longer a barrier separating the two, and so the magic nature of Arcturus started slipping into the normal wild.

The brunette didn’t mind. She felt strangely at ease between the trees of the magical forest, now appearing to be made of a hue of blues due to the veil of night. She suspected it had something to do with the Grand Triskellion. The entire forest had changed with it, feeling friendlier towards her in general.

Just as she was reaching the place where she believed she had seen the giant bird – As far as she could tell, the actual Arcturus Forest would still be a couple minutes away – she heard a horrible, ear-shattering screech from below.

However, she didn’t feel threatened. It was a pained screech.

Unable to hold herself back, she started to go down, towards the source of the noise.

Then, as she finally reached the trees and went below them, she froze.

What she had seen wasn’t a giant bird.

It was a dragon.


	2. Heavy luggage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko is tasked with taking care of something important.  
> She asks for help.

The dragon was wounded. Its stark white scales appeared to shine in the moonlight, that covered most of its forty-feet-long body, and that was not including the tail, had striking red blood streaking down its neck. The blood had a metallic shine to it.

Forgetting the fact that it was a dragon, Akko landed and ran towards the giant reptile. The creature apparently noticed her, for it snapped its head towards her and stared with a couple of panicked green eyes. It opened a giant mouth, but just grunted in pain.

Akko stopped. She just had one thing in mind: Trying to help. The dragon’s leathery wings were extended behind it, but they were shredded. She knew it wouldn’t be able to fly anymore.

Not that it mattered, probably. It wouldn’t live to realize that.

“Shhh, it’s ok.” Akko blinked away the tears she felt coming to her. She knew nothing of the dragon, but just imagining the pain was almost too much. Her voice cracked as she spoke. “I won’t hurt you.” Not that she could, anyways.

She desperately tried to think of some kind of healing spell, but she knew it wouldn’t work. Not only because she knew none, but because dragons fed off magic. It was ineffective against them. She had studied about them after her encounter with one last year.

For better or worse.

One of her first cohesive thoughts was _‘If only Diana was here, she’d know what to do.’_ One of her other cohesive thoughts was _‘If only Chariot was here, she’d know what to do.’_ Then she thought _‘If Sucy or Lotte were here, they’d know what to do.’_

In short, if only anyone but her were there, maybe the dragon could’ve lived.

It looked at her, as if considering something. Akko saw intelligence in those eyes. She had the feeling that this wasn’t the same kind of dragon as Fafnir had been. The wings and more beastly body were obvious indications of that, but the same intelligence she saw within those eyes was rather more primal in comparison to the technology-adapted-dragon.

 _‘Human_.’

Akko jumped back as she heard the voice in her head. A distinctively feminine voice.

 _‘I recognize your essence.’_ The dragon, Akko realized. It had to be the dragon speaking. _‘You’re the one who broke the seal and brought magic to the world once again.’_

Akko’s throat went dry, but she nodded.

The dragon coughed. Some smoke came out of her nostrils, almost asphyxiating Akko. Again, the brunette fought the urge to cry, ignoring how she had been basically painted black. ‘ _Do not look at me like that, human. You- Your essence has been embedded into this forest. Maybe you can take care of this for me.’_ Moving a giant leg, ending in giant claws, the dragon kindly pulled something from under her. It was a black egg, its size being about twice that of Akko’s head.

“Wait.” Akko said weakly. “W-What’s going to happen to you?” She asked, taking a step forward. “Don’t give up so soon! We can fix this, just tell me-” Maybe the dragon knew a spell or something…

 _‘Do not waste your time’._ She put the egg in front of Akko. _‘Be careful with him, human.’_ She said, closing her eyes. Akko stared at the egg for a few seconds, but then brought her attention back at the white reptile. _‘Go now, before it gets you too.’_ Her voice sounded weak, distant. The human teenager wanted to complaint, to ask her to struggle a little longer. But something inside her knew that there was no point. _Something_ had killed her. If that something came back, it would most certainly get Akko.

Feeling tears stream down her cheek, she grabbed the egg, almost dropping it. “Auch!” She exclaimed. It was too hot to hold with her bare hands.

Quickly, she used her coat to make an improvised bag for the egg, and tied it to her broom. She looked back towards the now completely unmoving dragon. Maybe there was still a chance, maybe-

She heard something else. The ground shook. Steps.

Without thinking more, she sat on her broom and flew. Not high, since the weight of the egg was too much, but just high enough to be over the forest trees. She was still crying, though now for a different reason. It was not the pain of the creature anymore; it was her inability to do anything. She felt impotent. If she had studied harder, maybe she would’ve known what to do.

But it was late for that, now. She looked down. The egg balanced with her movements, and she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

 

Akko was panting. She didn’t know if she was having a nervous breakdown: She had never experienced one. It sure seemed like it, though. She was having trouble thinking, breathing and staying on her feet.

She sneaked as best as she could carrying the egg in the improvised bag on her back. She wondered if giving the egg to a teacher might have been a good idea, but something felt wrong to her. The dragon had entrusted it to _her_ , and she had the feeling the teachers might try to take it away if she told them about it.

But she knew nothing about dragon eggs. She had only studied normal dragons, and not very deeply either. After the interest from encountering Fafnir faded she just kind of forgot.

Luckily, she managed to get in via the cafeteria’s outer door. No one was near, so she went to the second floor from there and finally reached the main hallway. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to reach her room – she was tired and emotionally unstable.

She turned west, ready to go to her room and ask Lotte and Sucy for help, but she stopped. Maybe there was someone else she could ask for help. Someone who would certainly know what to do. She _always_ knew what to do.

Slowly but surely, she turned east. Hopefully she’d make it.

 

A weak but persistent knock snapped Diana out of her studies. It was low enough in intensity that it would've probably avoided waking her up, should she have been asleep. However, it also sounded desperate. She rose from her desk, turning the corner created by her bookshelves, and went to open the door.

Hannah and Barbara were asleep, so she went about it quietly. In the night, the moonlight was enough to see by in her room.

Carefully opening the door, she almost cried in surprise. All she could see were a couple of beautiful red eyes looking at her, apparently floating. But only one girl in school had such eyes. Akko, sweat pearling her forehead, her face and clothes almost completely black, had a panicked look in her face. She relaxed visibly when she saw Diana and didn’t even hesitate to enter the room, carrying something big a cloak at her back.

“Akko, wh-“

“Hush.” Akko begged with her big red eyes, and Diana sighed. She nodded, and then Akko moved up to the little side-room Diana had created for herself with the bookshelf.

Laying the thing on her bed, Akko removed the cloak to show what was inside it. Diana couldn’t avoid gasping, for she recognized it immediately. She eyed Akko, who looked at her with the same expression as before. She wanted help, some kind of help, Diana could tell that. But what did she expect her to do?

Diana shook herself out of the surprise of the moment, taking the wand from her desk and casting a Silent Spell.

“It’s fine now, I’ve created a silence bubble.” She explained to the brunette, who nodded thankfully. “Now tell me, what’s going on?”

Akko opened her mouth to speak, but her voice instantly cracked, and she started to sob. She stumbled forward, tired, and Diana was barely able to caught her, dirtying her pyjamas too. Akko was too heavy for Diana, and so she tried to slowly guide her to a kneeling position on the ground. The blonde had never seen the brunette in such a shaken state. “It’s ok.” She said, keeping her hands on Akko’s arms. She wasn’t sure of what to do, but she wanted to help. Should she hug her and dirty herself further? Should she give her some space? The brunette kept sobbing and Diana shifted uncomfortably in place, until she felt how the other girl leaned forward and used her shoulder as support.

Awkwardly, Diana patted Akko’s back, trying not to get too hung up on how strong her muscles felt. “It’s fine, Akko. I am not sure what happened, but I’m certain it will be ok…” She couldn’t let go of her wand or the silence bubble would be dispelled, but she was having trouble keeping her focus. She noticed Akko smelling like dirt, smoke and trees. What had she been up to?

 

When Akko calmed down, she explained to Diana what had happened. The blonde listened without interrupting, sitting in her desk’s chair. Akko was in her bed, staining the sheets black. The spot where she had kneeled on the carpet was also black; she’d have to deal with that later.

Sighing, Diana nodded. “I see.” She said when Akko finished the story. “Akko, we need to tell a teacher. I’m sure they will-”

“No!” Akko cried, looking at her with pleading eyes again. “I- I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She looked down.

“Could you explain why do you think that?” The blonde raised an eyebrow, trying not to think too hard about how much she wished to change clothes. Akko didn’t answer, playing with the hem of her skirt. Diana sighed again, rising from her seat. She sat next to the brunette. She was already stained, she might as well go all the way. “If you don’t give me a good reason, I’ll just go tell Finnelan.” She said in a serious tone.

“I just- The dragon trusted it to me, Diana.” Akko shook her head.

“Then why did you come to me?” The blonde’s question seemed to take her by surprise. She remained in silence for a while. Diana put a hand on her shoulder, trying to appear comforting. Sometimes she wondered if Akko was intimidated by her, but then she’d do something like this and come to her for help instead of her teammates or Chariot and she’d be left more confused than anything.

Not that she didn’t appreciate it.

“Well, you’re… Different.” Akko shook her head. “I don’t know how to explain it, Diana. Please, trust me.” She looked at her. Diana had to fight back the urge to clean the brunette’s face.

“Fine, but what do you want me to do, Akko? This is a dragon egg. Even without its mother, it should be fine.” Diana explained.

“When is it going to hatch?” Akko looked at the egg sitting at her other side, putting a hand on it before letting out a yelp. Shaking her hand, Diana barely voided chuckling.

“It could take centuries. Not a single dragon has been born in like a thousand years, Akko. They need obscene amounts of magic to-” She gasped. “Of course.” She whispered. Akko looked at her questioningly. “Akko, this egg must be recent, very recent! When magic flowed back into the world, the magical creatures sensed it. Now that magic is back, Dragons can breed again knowing that their children will hatch!” Diana smiled, feeling excited. “This could be a new age for animals. Don’t you see? How could I not think of that? Akko, when you released the Grand Triskellion, you also saved a lot of magical races!” She bounced in bed, trying to get the brunette to share in her excitement.

For a second, Akko seemed to understand, a glimmer of excitement showing in her face too. However, the somber expression soon came back, and she looked back at the egg. “That means this thing won’t hatch for like another century? How am I supposed to take care of it?” She shook her head. Diana’s own excitement died too as she thought.

“Well, I do have some idea of how dragons treat their eggs.” The blonde confessed. For the first time since entering the room, Akko showed a smile to her, prompting with her eyes for Diana to continue. “Well, it is said that the less time they spend with their mothers while inside the egg, the more fierce they’ll be when hatched, so a lot of dragons just leave them alone from the moment they’re born.” She explained. Akko frowned.

“That’s horrible. This egg’s mother obviously cared a lot for it…”

“Not all dragons are the same, like us humans.” Akko nodded, but she was still upset. “Then, the hotter the place where they hatch, the stronger the flames will be. That’s why it’s not unusual for dragons to drop the eggs into a volcano. Fire dragons, at least. They’re the most common kind.” Diana tried to recall all the things she remembered, though none of them very useful to the situation at hand. “If for any reason a dragon egg were to be smelled by a hydra, the creature will do whatever it can to eat it. They’re supposed to be like caviar to them.” Still nothing useful. “When the dragon is first born, it will take the first living animal it sees as its mother, imitating it. Dragons are very careful not to let their nests where other animals could reach them, and come back when they know the eggs are about to hatch.” That would have been useful, had the dragon been about to hatch. However, if Diana’s hypothesis was right, then that was nowhere near happening. “Oh, and the more magic the dragon consumes, the easier it will be for it to hatch.” Diana finished. She felt extremely silly, none of her data had been particularly useful.

However, when Diana looked to the side, Akko was beaming at her.

“I’ve got an idea!” She claimed, jumping from bed.

Diana had a bad feeling about that idea.


	3. Caring for an egg.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana takes the first turn in taking care of the dragon egg.

“This won’t work, Akko.” Diana shook her head. She had allowed Akko to take a shower and get a change of clothes, and now the brunette kneeled next to the bed looking intensely at the dragon egg.

“Why not? We just gotta make it hatch, and if we remain near him then he’s going to hatch being peaceful, right?” The brunette had recovered her shine – that thing that pushed her to always do stupid things that she believed were fine.

“It could take years.” Diana explained. “Even if we were all day, all week or all year feeding magic to the egg without pause, we don’t know how much time it’d take to hatch it.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling extremely tired. It was probably around two in the morning by now. While she was used to late study nights, she was not used to Akko being there making a mess of her brain with her hyperactivity and cuteness.

“But we can try!” Her determined look made Diana sigh. There was not stopping her once she got like that. “What is the best magic transferring spell you know?”

“Could we at least try it tomorrow?” The blonde gave up trying to argue, instead aiming for an appeal to sleepiness.

“Oh, sure…” Akko gave the egg sideways glance. “Can I…?”

“Leave it here.” Diana tried not to sigh again. She almost offered Akko sleep there so that she wouldn’t worry; but then she’d have to do some explaining to Hannah and Barbara, and she doubted she’d have energy for that with only four hours of sleep.

The brunette looked down at the stains she had left in the carpet and the sheets. “I’ll help you…”

“Don’t worry.” She didn’t intend to, but she couldn’t help give her a tired, cold stare. Akko nodded apologetically and started towards the door.

“Sorry for this, Diana.” Akko said before exiting.

“It’s ok, I’m glad you trust me. Now, if you don’t mind, could I try to get some sleep?”

Akko nodded, turning to go. The blonde took a deep breath, calming herself. She still had to clean the mess the other girl had done, but sleep was near…

“Ehm, Diana?” Akko didn’t leave the room, looking back one more time. “Thank you.” She closed the door, not letting Diana any time to react.

Maybe because of her precarious mental state, Diana suddenly felt a little lighter. The perspective of having to clean wasn’t as annoying as it had been moments before.

Well, this was Akko after all. It would be weirder if she _didn’t_ get into trouble from time to time.

 

Akko woke up earlier than usual, despite how late she went to sleep.

Sucy and Lotte were still changing; she usually woke up after they were ready. Both looked at her with some curiosity as she got up and started changing. She had to use her second uniform, as the first was unusable. Diana had taken care of it, of course. She started to remember last night, and her breakdown. She was kind of glad it had been with Diana. She wasn’t that close to her, and maybe that’s exactly what had allowed the whole situation. Lotte would’ve acted way too preoccupied; Sucy would have been too cold. Diana had been logical.

With speed, she finished and left the room, leaving her two confused teammates to wonder what was going on with her.

She ran across school as silently as she could, but at this hour it wasn’t about sneaking around but about not being a bother. Not that that would affect her normally, but this time she also didn’t want the attention.

When she reached Diana’s room, she almost barged in out of sheer momentum. She managed to stop herself and knock.

Hannah opened the door. She was fully dressed and ready, they would all probably be.

“Akko?” Hannah raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here? What are you doing awake, even?” She looked at her in disbelief, wondering if maybe she wasn’t dreaming.

“I need to talk with Diana…” Akko pressed her lips, uncomfortable. Had Diana not told them?

“Diana is still sleeping, Akko. Unlike you she can get ready in just ten minutes should she need to.” Hannah made an attempt at closing the door, but Akko’s foot stopped it from closing.

“Now I’ll let you know I got ready in literally two minutes before coming here!” Akko exclaimed. “And I really, really need to talk with Diana.” She looked at her feet. If Hannah slammed the door she would probably have to remove it from there or she’d get hurt.

“Akko…” Hannah looked at her with dark eyes. The kind of eyes that said ‘I’m going to slam this door on your foot’.

“It’s fine…” A sleepy voice came from inside. “Just let her in, she’s going to come back in five minutes anyways if you drive her away.” Was that Diana? Akko could barely recognize the sound. It was so… imperfect.

Hannah looked back a few times, as if to make sure. Then, with a clearly disapproving look, she let Akko in. “Don’t cause too much trouble.” She warned.

_‘It’s a little late for that.’_ Akko thought, mentally sticking her tongue out to the auburn-haired girl. She pointedly avoided looking at Barbara.

“Ehm… May I come in?” Akko paused at the other side of the bookshelf, thinking that maybe Diana slept in her underwear or something.

“Yes.” Diana still sounded sleepy, but Akko stepped into the improvised side-room anyways.

Diana was, indeed, half asleep. She was lying in bed, hair made a mess, the hints of bags starting to form under her closed eyes. She was breathing slowly. The morning light started to slip through the window, and a few sunrays shone in the maroon, unstained bed. For some reason, Akko wished she had a camera to capture this moment forever.

The blonde opened one of her eyes, looking tiredly at Akko. “Can you wait until I wash my face?” She asked. Akko opened her mouth to answer, but shut it again, simply nodding and quietly sitting on the chair.

Diana slowly got up. She wore baby-blue pyjamas. Even if her hair was a mess, it was as pretty as ever. Her careful and elegant movements seemed enhanced by the slowness of tiredness. She rubbed her eyes, standing and putting on a pair of slippers. Akko carefully watched her go about her morning.

It was… Revealing, maybe, to see Diana acting like so. Not lazy, but relaxed. She was used to the stiff, formal and imposing version of the blonde. However, she now looked so _normal._

She would be lying if she said she didn’t like it.

Diana finally came back from the bathroom, still tired but looking awake. She looked at the room and her teammates and waved for them to go on without her. Akko let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Without the duo there, this would be significantly easier.

“Where’s the egg?” Akko asked, looking around.

Diana took out her wand and flicked it, the bed floated and under it the dragon egg waited. Under the daylight, Akko could see that it wasn’t completely black. Or at least, not in a single hue of black. It had a wavy pattern, going in layers, as if they were different stratums. It was pretty. “I thought, since I’m going to have to deal with it, I might as well use it as a bed warmer…” Diana commented. Akko frowned, the blonde widened her eyes a little at the reaction. “I was joking, it was just the best place to hide it.” She quickly explained moving the egg with her leg and putting the bed back in place. Akko moved to try and grab it, but then remembered how hot it was.

“So, are you really sure you want to do this?” Diana sat primly in bed, crossing her legs. Now, even in her disheveled state she was able to manage an air of aristocracy, not at all like a few minutes ago. Akko found herself staring a little too much at her, so she focused on the egg.

“Of course.” Akko nodded. “Diana, I know you’re not sure about this whole thing, but we can’t leave this egg alone…”

“I am not asking about that.” The blonde shook her head. “I meant the skipping class part. I can surely get away with it for a couple days; no one would suspect a thing if I claimed to be sick. You, on the other hand…”

“Wait, so you will help me?” Akko’s eyes lit with excitement. She had been worrying about what would happen if Diana didn’t agree after all. When Diana nodded, a weight was lifted from her chest. “Well, maybe if you said it was true…”

“Akko, we’re not teammates, and our rooms are on opposite sides of the school. If I tried to give you an alibi it would be more suspicious than you just skipping class.” Diana’s tone was blunt. She didn’t have the energy to try to be comprehensive.

“Well then I’ll just skip, I don’t care.” Akko crossed her arms, determined. The blonde rolled her eyes.

“Go to class. I’ll take care of it today. Hannah and Barbara will cover for me. Plus, you’re in no place to be skipping classes.” She used a scolding voice this time, and Akko looked down. She was right, of course. Even if she put her all into it, she barely managed to get by. Skipping class was not something she should be doing.

“Ok, but be…” What should she say? The brunette stopped to think. Careful? No, that was very obvious. Safe? What could happen to her?

“Just go.” Diana pointed at the door. Akko gave up on trying to form a phrase and just nodded, getting out of Diana’s field of view.

 

When the blonde heard the door closing, she let out another tired sigh.

She looked at the egg. She would have tried to pick it up with magic, but it would be useless. It would just suck the levitation spell.

Instead, she put on a pair of gardening gloves she always kept between her things, since she didn’t know when she’d need them, and picked the egg carefully. Not that she needed to, dragon eggs were as hard as iron, it wouldn’t break easily.

“What am I going to do with you?” She whispered, not sure of why. “We should give you a name.” She continued. How would Akko call a dragon? Knowing her, she would probably name it Alcor. The fact that Chariot was now a teacher didn’t stop the brunette from still seeing her as an idol.

Diana was tempted to go back to sleep, but she fought that. Instead, she just sat on her bed and rested her back on the wall, putting the egg at the foot of the bed.

She pointed at it with her wand and shot a powerful spell at it. Normally, that spell would cause an explosion that would destroy her room.

It took it and the magic never took form, it just disappeared. Nodding and understanding, Diana casted another spell, more powerful this time. It absorbed it too.

She repeated the process. It was tiresome, but also kinda fun. She kept trying to see if something would work. She knew nothing would, but letting out the most powerful spell sin her repertoire felt strangely relieving. Spell after spell, she found enjoyment in just mindlessly attacking and, for once, not having to worry about keeping up appearances. It was a therapeutic experience.

When she grew tired of it, she performed a simple magic transferring spell, feeling the magic of her surroundings get channelled through her and towards the egg. In the past this waste of magic would bring attention to herself, but with the new magic in the world, she could waste as much as she wanted. No one would notice.

She kept her wand aiming at the egg. Akko had called it a ‘he’, hadn’t she? A good name for a male dragon, what could it be? The only other dragon they knew was Fafnir, but Diana doubted that old scammer had any knowledge on how to raise kids. Still, he was called after a deity from the Norse Mythology. Actually, wasn’t a lot of magic inspired by Norse Mythology in general? The three of magic was called Yggdrasil after all.

So a Norse name? She tried to remember. She knew at least some things about it, even if she couldn’t quite put her finger to it. Maybe Jörmungandr? No way. She didn’t know how to pronounce it correctly, and she highly doubted Akko would even be able to remember such a word.

But that gave her an idea.

“Ouroboros.” She whispered. While usually depicted as a serpent, it could also be a dragon. “Akko should be able to remember that. Well, if I write it and repeat it enough times, at least…” She was so tired she hadn’t realized she was talking to herself.

“Hey!” Suddenly, a voice startled her and she stopped the spell. “I can remember Uruburo!” The brunette appeared, angry, from the other side of the library.

After getting rid of the surprise, Diana gave Akko a cold look. Akko froze in place, suddenly realizing what she had done.

“Akko, may I ask why are you still here?”


	4. Strange behaviours.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the others notice something's off.

Akko bowed as her Japanese instincts kicked in. “Sorry!” She said, avoiding the urge to drop to her knees. “Really sorry! I was so worried though, I couldn’t…”

She had faked going out because she wanted to see what Diana would do. Not that she didn’t trust her, but she still wondered if maybe the blonde wouldn’t go to a teacher in secret. Now she felt silly for that, if Diana made a promise she would keep it. Maybe she was just too tired to think properly.

“I get it.” Diana interrupted her. “But will you please go to class? You can still make it before the end of the first period. Also, you pronounced it wrong, despite what you said. It’s ‘Ouroboros’, but if it’s too hard we don’t have to use it.”

Akko looked up. The blonde didn’t look angry anymore. Actually, she had a gentle look on her face. Not fully sure of why, the brunette now definitely didn’t want to go. Looking at those blue eyes was a little too much for her, so she kind of just nodded. “No, it’s ok, we can use that. Uroburos, right?” Diana just shook her head. Akko flushed, deciding that she’d deal with the name later, and turned to go. “I’ll come check on you every recess.” She said as she walked out of the room.

She heard Diana start to complain, but didn’t hear any of it. She was determined to come back and check on her egg Urubouros at all possible times.

 

“Akko, what happened to Diana?” Barbara asked as soon as recess started. The brunette had wanted to run away as soon as possible, but she also expected this.

“She…” Akko considered her options. The truth? No, she didn’t really trust Hannah and Barbara to not tell a teacher. “Wasn’t feeling very well, told me to ask you to cover for her.” Well, that was half true. Or at least one third true.

The duo exchanged a look. “Maybe we should just go check, make sure she hasn’t killed her on accident or anything.” Hannah said, not even trying to whisper. Akko frowned, starting to get angry, and got up. The two blue team members eyed her and sighed. “Fine, guess we’ll take your word for it. But Diana better tell us the exact same thing when we go back or you won’t like what we do.” Hannah gave her a final cold stare before turning and getting outside the classroom.

“So you’re telling me you just spent a bunch of time alone in Diana’s room?” Sucy raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you two had gotten so close.” The witch smirked. Akko rolled her eyes.

“It’s not like that. We just had… Something to discuss.” She wasn’t lying this time.

“And you discussed so hard that Diana couldn’t leave the room, I see.” Sucy laughed at her comment. Akko took a few seconds to understand her implication, and blushed when she got it.

“Sucy! I would never-!” She cut herself when a bunch of girls gave her a weird stare, since she had raised her voice. One would think they’d be used to it by now. “I would never do that with Diana.” She repeated in a low voice, flushing. Lotte chuckled, face slightly red as she heard the conversation. “What?” Akko barked, starting to get annoyed. She should have been on her way to Diana’s room, not arguing with her teammates.

“Nothing, sorry.” The redhead looked away. Akko was about to try to push her into saying it, but then another redhead appeared in her field of view.

“What’s this?” Amanda sat in the desk in front of them. Constanze and Jasminka followed, though they were busy with a little device and eating respectively. “You’re banging Diana?”

Akko blushed harder. “Oh shut up!” She shouted. Her face felt too hot. Imagining lewd things with Diana was surprisingly not annoying.

Maybe even pleasant.

“Hey, I don’t blame you. The rich girl’s hot, if you ask me. And she obviously has a soft spot for you.” Amanda shrugged, but her smirk told Akko that she was just teasing her. Still, she couldn’t help feel attacked.

“She doesn’t!” The brunette cried. Diana was always harsh with her. Probably harsher than with anyone else. In Akko’s mind, this was probably because Diana saw her as a rival too and expected her to be above average.

Amanda gave her a knowing smile. Akko was already pretty infuriated, but this was the turning point. She simply walked away from the group. However, before going outside the classroom she turned. “Good morning, Jasminka, Constanze!” She cried in an angry tone, turning and leaving again.

 

“What do you think she’s up to this time?” Amanda asked the brunette’s teammates.

“Knowing her, probably something extremely stupid or dangerous. Maybe both. No, scratch that, surely both.” Sucy snickered. Amanda looked at Lotte, who just shrugged.

Curiosity nagged at the taller redhead, who stood up and waved goodbye. Then, she pointed for Constanze and Jasminka to wait for her there. They weren’t planning on going anywhere, but it was a preemptive measure.

Cautiously, Amanda peeked outside the classroom just in time to see Akko going up the stairs. She followed quickly but stealthily. Not that Akko would’ve noticed anyways, she looked to be focused on a single thing that drove her forward without pause. The redhead didn’t even stop to take an offered candy from one of her classmates. Now _that_ was weird, Akko would _never_ pass the chance to get a free candy.

Weirder was how she entered the east side of the dormitories, obviously going to Diana’s room. For a second, Amanda considered the chance that Akko might actually be doing something improper with the blonde, but she shook her head. No way. Diana might like her but she would never break the rules so hard. Probably.

Akko did have a talent to make people change. Normally through some kind of magic adventure, too. Many times people called her a magnet for trouble, including Amanda, but in the end, what Akko was really a magnet for was interesting experiences. The redhead would be lying if she said that she didn’t feel a little jealous about that particular property.

As soon as the brunette entered the room, Amanda wondered how much time she planned to spend in there. Recess was only going to last another five minutes. Had she more time, she would have probably gone get her broom to try and spy through a window, but as of right now she could only do one thing.

Stepping carefully through the wooden-floored hallway, she put her ear against the blue team’s room’s door.

 

“So, how’s it going…?” Akko asked Diana, who was now sitting in bed with a book in her legs. She was using one hand to flip pages, the other one aiming at the dragon and giving it a bunch of magic.

“You left thirty minutes ago, Akko. Nothing’s changed.” Diana avoided looking up. The less she saw Akko’s face, the less likely she’d be to give in to whatever it was the brunette would suggest next. Because, of course, Diana knew what Akko would suggest.

“So, what if I-”

“No.” Diana didn’t even let her finish. “You shall go and study. I refuse to have this discussion again. You can come back on the afternoon and then we’ll see, for now just go.” Even without looking up, Diana could feel the disappointed look Akko was giving her. She wasn’t reading at that precise moment, she was just making sure to have her eyes somewhere where she knew her clarity of mind wasn’t compromised. She had noticed that whenever Akko was in the vicinity she allowed her guard to drop, if just a little. She knew why, though it was hard to admit it. She had no time to be thinking of anything beyond her studies.

Yet here she was, sitting in bed instead of being in class, shooting magic at a giant egg and suddenly feeling self conscious about the fact that she was still on her pyjamas.

“Come on Diana, just for a few minutes.” Akko’s voice, pleading, made Diana look up. Big mistake, as the brunette was putting on a puppy face. Her rational side told her that this was not something that should affect her. No matter how cute someone was that didn’t make them be on the right.

Her emotional side said ‘fuck it’ and Diana’s heart skipped a beat.

“... fine.” She sighed heavily. When Akko was involved, Diana sighed about five times more than usual. “But just so that I can teach you how to do it properly. I don’t doubt that you’ll magically overload yourself or something if I don’t.”

Akko beamed and stepped forward, taking out her wand. Well, if anything went wrong, at least the egg was there to take the magic, so it couldn’t be that bad.

 

“...so that I can teach you how to do it properly. I don’t...” Amanda heard the words through the door and decided that she had heard enough.

She started on her way towards the classroom, feeling like she had heard something she shouldn’t have. So they were having sex, after all? Hard to believe, but what else could they be talking about? She shook her head. She wouldn’t mention this to anyone, she was no snitch.

However, as soon as she looked forward, she recognized a couple of girls walking towards her. Hannah, with her somewhat cute grumpy face and Barbara, looking at her with some confusion.

“Hey.” Amanda stopped. The duo eyed her.

“What are you doing here?” Hannah asked with suspicion. Amanda refrained from rolling her eyes. Cute as far as looks went, anyways.

“I was-” Wait, she couldn’t tell them, could she? “Checking to see if Diana was ok.” She lied.

“Ah, we were going to do the same before recess ends.” Barbara explained, and Amanda nodded, readying herself to keep going.

Then she remembered what she had heard. The blue team members had started moving again, but she quickly jumped back and cut their path. “Hey, Diana told me she was very tired!” She smiled awkwardly. “Told me to tell everyone not to bother her.” She laughed nervously. The other girls weren’t buying it.

“Well, you can go if you want.” The redhead shrugged, thinking that maybe if she went for a less suspicious approach it might work better. She considered just running and knocking on the door. Why she cared so much was a mystery even to her, but if the rivals were getting it on in the room, she now felt strangely protective. “She will just tell you what I said and then she’ll think badly of you for not listening, but whatever.”

Barbara hummed in the low, thinking. Hannah still wasn’t buying it and moved towards the door ignoring her. _‘Well, I tried.’_ Amanda thought. At least Amanda trusted Hannah wouldn’t tell the teachers as far as Diana was involved. Assuming she didn’t try to make it look like Akko had forced Diana or something.

As the auburn haired girl was about to reach the door, however, the bell rang again, marking the end of the recess.

Hannah stopped in place. Barbara sighed. “Come on Hannah, we’ll check on her after lunch.” She said. Hannah hesitated, eyeing Amanda with distrust.

Amanda didn’t stick around long enough to be interrogated. She waved and quickly left the hallway, going downstairs.

She couldn’t help blushing with a smirk on her face as she imagined what an odd couple Diana and Akko made. It was obvious that Diana had some affection for Akko, but she never considered the brunette to be able to actually fall in love with anyone besides that platonic love she still felt for Chariot.

Then she came to the realization. _‘God damn it, Akko got a girlfriend before me!’_

 

“No, Akko...” Diana let out an exasperated sight. Akko was kneeling next to her bed aiming at the egg. She was pronouncing the spell wrong, and she knew it. Despite her best efforts it was just a very hard spell. Not that Diana had time to correct her for the twelfth time, since the bell rang. “We’ll continue later, go to class.”

Akko was disappointed, but she didn’t argue as she stood up and looked at the egg. It hadn’t changed in the slightest, and well, she didn’t really expect it too. She hoped that maybe it’d hatch before the familiar day next week, but she also believed what Diana had said. However, even if it took years, she’d get that egg to hatch within her lifetime. Oruboruos was going to be a part of her family whether he wanted to or not.

When she reached the classroom, the teacher was still not there. They usually took about five minutes to enter, luckily for her. She sat back in her place, where Sucy was playing with a spider – Akko tried very hard not to freak out – and Lotte was writing some notes.

She noticed, however, the strange look Amanda was giving her from her seat at the front – she had been put there because of her bad habit of sleeping in class. The redhead, realizing she had been discovered, gave her an encouraging smile and a couple of thumbs up.

Akko cocked her head, confused, but ended up shrugging it off as some kind of joke she didn’t get. When professor Badcock entered and started to write numbers on the blackboard without even saying high, Akko knew she had to get into serious mode. Numerology was not her strong point. Well, no subject was, but this was particularly annoying.

For the next couple of hours, she ignored everything but magic numbers.


	5. A room for two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda confronts Diana, who is very tired.

_‘This isn’t going to end well.’_ Diana thought as she walked downstairs on the morning, yawning. Akko was in her room, she had sneaked in after Hannah and Barbara left. It had taken a long while to explain to them that she was actually tired. The hardest part of the discussion was when they mentioned Amanda. Thanks to how they described their encounter, Diana had deduced that Amanda had been spying on them and had decided to help. She’d confront the redhead later, but for now she was grateful.

She entered the cafeteria, and quickly localized her teammates between the dozens of students sitting or walking around. Taking a breakfast tray she went to sit down next to them. She picked at her food, not really eating, worried about the brunette. True, she couldn’t cause a magic catastrophe as long as the egg was there, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t cause a _normal_ catastrophe. It was Akko she was talking about, after all. Clumsy, beautiful and magnet-for-troubles Akko.

Hannah and Barbara seemed to pick up on her mood, since the black-haired girl nudged her.

“Are you ok, Diana? If you’re still feeling bad we can tell the teachers.” Barbara offered. Diana shook her head.

“I’m fine.” She took a bite… sip? At the strange… Concoction in her plate. It tasted like nothing, but she was used to it anyways, so she took another one. “I was just tired, yesterday. Don’t worry for me.”

Hannah said nothing. She had been acting strange since the day prior. Diana knew she didn’t like Akko, so she assumed that was why the auburn-haired witch appeared to be on edge since yesterday. What would she think if she knew that the brunette was alone in their room right now?

They finished eating in silence, both of her teammates throwing her different glances from time to time. It was hard for them to understand when Diana didn’t act perfect. They knew her well enough, but whenever the blonde wouldn’t have her mask up, they would get worried, as if something was wrong. Well, Diana had given them the reasons to act like that, since she usually did drop her façade when something was wrong.

For her to take a day off was practically unheard of.

A fourth person sat next to Hannah, directly in front of Diana. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed Amanda approach the table.

“Hey.” She said casually. Diana raised an eyebrow. Barbara and Hannah looked at the redhead with a mix of awkwardness and surprise. The blonde suppressed a yawn. She was too tired for this. Last night had been better than the last, but she still found sleep elusive.

“Good morning.” Diana greeted.

Amanda said nothing, started to eat and kept her eyes fixed on Diana. The blonde was finished with her breakfast at this point. Normally she would get up and go to the classroom, but she didn’t want to be rude – despite Amanda’s own rudeness.

She ate fast. Not as fast as Akko would have, but faster than any member of the Blue team. Once she was finished, she gulped down her water in a single go, letting out a contented sigh afterwards. “So, now that I’m full, care to have a chat, Diana?” Amanda gave her a knowing smile. The kind of smile that revealed she was up to no good.

“I believe we have some time before class starts. What is it you want to chat about?” Diana tried not to show her suspicion. Amanda never talked to her directly. Actually, she didn’t remember any time she and the redhead had been together alone. Akko was always there, being the reason the green and blue teams even hung out in the first place.

“Well, nothing these two should hear.” Amanda pointed at Hannah and Barbara without even looking at them.

Diana frowned. She would say that whatever there was to be said, her teammates should be qualified to hear it too. But, if her theory about her attitude coming from her knowledge of the egg was true, then…

“Why should she hear you, of all people?” Hannah asked. “What prank are you trying to pull on her?”

“No prank.” Amanda shrugged. “I just don’t want to get distracted by a couple of pretty faces.”

The other girls stopped at the comment. Now the redhead was definitely messing with them.

“Fine. Shall we talk about this outside?” Diana stood. Hannah and Barbara looked at her with betrayed expressions. Diana tried to avoid their looks. She’d have to talk to Akko about telling at least them.

Amanda rolled her eyes, but stood and followed her as she walked outside.

“Is this about how you spied on us yesterday?” Diana asked as soon as they turned a corner and the cafeteria was out of sight.

The redhead seemed taken aback, but she recovered quickly, the annoying knowing smirk falling into place in her face again. “Indeed.” She nodded. Putting her hands on her pockets, her expression changed to a more serious one. “Now, I know you probably don’t want me butting into your lives-”

“You’re right.” Diana said coldly. “Just get on with it, what is it you want?”

“Just give you some advice.” Amanda put her back against the wall, her emerald eyes looking up. “See, I don’t think you’re experienced with doing sneaky stuff.”

“I can be sneaky if I want to, thank you very much.” Diana scoffed. She didn’t like when people assumed she couldn’t-

“Did you close your curtains yesterday?” Amanda looked at her with a raised eyebrow, making Diana stop. “You also weren’t particularly quiet, were you? What if someone besides me heard you?” She pointed with her nose to the cafeteria. “What would your teammates think, knowing what you’re doing? Even more, knowing that you’re doing it with Akko?”

The way she phrased that made Diana hesitate. Sure, having a dragon egg was prohibited, but Hannah and Barbara wouldn’t be particularly angry at that. Though, they might have been surprised if they knew she was doing it for Akko. Still, something felt wrong about the conversation.

“I don’t…” She didn’t really know how to answer. “What does any of that matter to you?”

“Look, Diana, I just want to help a pal here.” Amanda shook her head, as if disappointed.

“I believe we’re quite fine without your help, thank you.” Diana crossed her arms. Amanda snorted.

“If I hadn’t been there yesterday, Hannah would’ve caught you two in the middle of you ‘teaching Akko how to do it properly’” Amanda replied, some self importance evident in her voice.

And then Diana understood. Amanda raised an eyebrow as she noticed Diana blushing furiously.

“Y-y-you think that we…” Diana was in utter shock. Emotions within her broke the normal expression she tried to always keep up as it changed between embarrassment, confusion, anger and disbelief. “Amanda, we’re _not_ having sex!” She exclaimed, making sure to tackle the main point from the start.

Amanda raised her other eyebrow.

“Then _what_ are you doing?” She cocked her head, now confused.

Diana formed fists with her hands, frustrated. She took a while to answer, pushing down the previous embarrassment. She tried not to think what would have happened if anyone but Amanda made such a mistake in reading what was going on inside the room.

Taking a deep breath, Diana explained.

 

Akko was bored.

She kept looking at the black egg, with its different black layers, and shooting magic at it. Diana’s room smelled like flowers. Diana’s bed smelled like Diana. How did Diana smell, anyways? Of aristocracy? Of perfection? And of course her bed would smell like that. If anyone could smell like perfection it would be Diana.

Great, now she was so bored that she was thinking about Diana’s _smell,_ of all things.

Without breaking the smell, she moved closer to the egg. “Hey, want to come out yet?” She asked. “You know, I’m ready whenever you are. If you feel like stretching your legs and such, don’t hold back…”

She felt stupid. The egg was not going to hatch after a single day. Laying back on bed, the brunette wondered if maybe she should get someone else to help them. Chariot? While she was tempted, it had been a long while since she had needed the ex-idol’s help. Plus, she liked to imagine how proud the teacher would be if she did this by herself. Lotte and Sucy were an option, but she felt like she would be taking advantage of Lotte’s kindness. And she feared Sucy would try to experiment on the poor creature.

And first period hadn’t ended. Patience was not her forte. She closed her eyes for just a moment, trying to get rid of her boredom.

“Akko.” The brunette snapped her eyes open. Diana was looking at her with a deadpan expression. Getting up, Akko wiped some drool from her face.

“Huh?” She felt disoriented. Diana’s looked changed to one of disappointment.

“Akko, this was _your_ idea.” The blonde said. “If you’re not able to handle it, we can just call off the plan.”

The dizziness was slapped out of her mind in a single go. “No, wait! Sorry, I just-” She had no real excuse, but she didn’t exactly know where she had gone wrong. “Argh, it’s just so boring!”

“You could read a book.” Diana pointed at the bookshelves. Akko scrunched her nose in disgust at the idea of reading. Who could read _for fun_? “I’m offering a solution, Akko. Don’t put that face.” Diana sat next to her on bed, making their shoulders touch. Akko’s heart did a somersault, and she was about to follow it.

“Sorry…” Akko felt guilty. She knew this had been her idea, and Diana wasn’t wrong in chastising her for falling asleep and being lazy.

“Amanda knows about the egg now.” Diana changed subject. Akko perked up.

“What? How?”

“I told her.” Diana didn’t look at her as she took out her wand and casted the magic transferring spell.

The brunette remained silent while she tried to figure out if she had heard wrong.

Diana saw this confusion and explained. By the end of the explanation, both of them were blushing.

“Oh, should’ve thought of that…” Akko laughed nervously. Suddenly, she was very self conscious about sharing a bed with Diana in that moment.

“I should have seen it coming too. I have come up with an idea to make this whole ordeal less suspicious, if you’re willing to hear it.” Diana’s shoulder seemed to be everything Akko could focus on. Stupid Amanda, getting those things into Diana’s head and indirectly putting them in her own head too!

“Sure.” If she kept her words short, Akko thought she wouldn’t be able to say anything too stupid.

“I propose we announce we’re doing research together. I’ll say I asked you for help for more… Physical parts of the research.” Diana pointed outside. Akko understood. She meant the crawl-through-the-dirt parts of a research. “And we might even be given permission to skip some classes, assuming that our research could be used for extra credit in some subject.” Diana shuffled in place. She didn’t seem as tired as the day prior, but she was obviously tired nonetheless. Slowly but surely, her head came to rest on Akko’s shoulder. The brunette wasn’t sure if the other girl was even aware of this.

“What kind of research are we doing?” She asked, trying very hard to stay quiet.

“What is your worst subject?” Diana said in a low voice.

“Numerology, I think.” Akko recalled.

“Then we can say that we’re trying to find the most effective way to read a flower’s petals. Good excuse to go outside during the day. There are some flowers that only appear at certain hours of the day, too.” Diana kept speaking with closed eyes. “We can figure out the rest later…” She let out a long yawn. Was this the first time Akko had seen her yawn like that? Probably.

“But, then we’ll have to turn in our research, won’t we?” Akko wasn’t so sure about the idea.

“Akko, I researched this years ago. I can just replicate my old documents…”

Her spell stopped. Her breath steadied.

She was asleep.

The recess bell rang. Akko was about to wake Diana up, but something within her stopped her mouth.

Maybe letting her friend sleep wasn’t a bad idea.


	6. Teamwork.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana realizes she can't keep this from their friends much longer.

“Are you sure you’re not banging her?” Amanda asked. “Maybe you just don’t know what that means. The dragon egg isn’t just a metaphor or something like that, right?” She teased Diana, who was copying Hannah’s notes of the day prior. She had slept through an entire period, which only added to her stress, and now sat in the cafeteria. While others said it didn’t matter, since Chariot hadn’t made the class, she had asked to be left alone. Amanda didn’t care.

Stupid Akko, why didn’t she wake her up? And more importantly, stupid past-self, why did she have to go and fall asleep next to her? She had such a weird relationship with the brunette, even she didn’t understand it. In one hand, Akko always had her on edge. On the other, she was the only one she could truly relax around. Shaking her head, Diana gave Amanda a cold look.

“We just had things to discuss.”

“Akko used the same excuse yesterday, I believe.” Amanda smiled. Diana just sighed, lacking energy to get properly angered.

“We were deciding on what kind of research we should do.” She explained, going back to her notes.

“And you discussed that for like two hours?” Of course she wouldn’t buy it.

“Why are you so obsessed with this?” Diana hissed. She didn’t need the redhead to be nagging at her about her stupid fantasies. “Akko and I are nothing but friends. She came to me asking for help, I’m trying to help. There is no ulterior motive here.” She was feeling slightly dizzy. The constant chatter in the cafeteria was not the best place to try and concentrate.

Amanda’s smile persisted. “I’m just joking, chill.” She shrugged. “So, research is code for ‘trying to hatch a dragon egg in the middle of school’ right?” It was more like a rhetorical question but Diana nodded anyways. “I suggest you tell Hannah and Barbara about it then.” The redhead pointed at her teammates a few tables away. “Even if Akko told you not to tell anyone, your room is theirs too, you know.”

Diana didn’t answer. She knew she was right, but she wasn’t willing to admit it in that precise moment. Instead, she focused on the notes. She was near finishing; she’d be able to eat once it was done.

However, she couldn’t focus for much time before Lotte and Sucy approached her table and sat down too.

“Diana.” Lotte asked. Diana held back from staring daggers at the soft voiced girl.

“Yes?” She, however, didn’t look up. She knew what this was going to be about. From the corner of her eye she noticed that Sucy was softly mixing some kind of potion. It was against regulations to brew any kind of potion in the cafeteria.

“Do you know where Akko is? She left early this morning but she hasn’t shown in class.” Lotte appeared nervous. “No one’s seen her.”

“I do know, and she’s ok.” Diana was direct. She’d have to talk seriously to Akko about keeping the secret. This was just the second day. If they acted like this all week, they’d be expelled before familiar day. Luckily, Diana had turned her form the first day. She was very acquainted with her unicorn.

“Oh, thanks.” Lotte relaxed in her chair, starting to eat her lunch. “I thought she had gotten into trouble again.” Lotte chuckled.

Well, she wasn’t wrong, but Diana wasn’t going to tell her that. After another few minutes of silence, she finally finished. She stood to go grab food. She would need to eat quickly or she wouldn’t finish, and she still had to go check that Akko hadn’t fallen asleep… Sitting back down, she started eating.

A dragon egg.

Each time she remembered what was on her room her fatigue seemed to go away for a while. The possibilities were endless. If dragons were starting to have children again, who would know? Maybe in a couple hundred years a new age of dragons would arrive. With modern knowledge, they wouldn’t have to hide from dragon slayers. The impact they could have in society was amazing. Dragons tended to be the most powerful magicians of their own element. In the past, many powerful spells were born from observing them. The best healing spell in history could only be performed by a nature dragon. Maybe, if dragons resurged, they could even help cure modern diseases.

Diana was snapped out of her daydream when she finished eating and, looking up, she noticed she had been sitting with what was basically strangers to her. The witches she recognized as Sarah and Elfried were uncomfortably waiting for her to finish.

“Hello.” Sarah, the tall girl with long red hair said once Diana made eye contact. She blushed slightly.

“Oh, excuse me.” Diana stood, clearing her throat. “I was lost in thought, I didn’t mean to be rude.” She picked her tray, nodding goodbye to the two girls who followed her with their eyes for a few seconds.

And now she wasn’t even aware of her surroundings? It was her own fault, but maybe this whole ordeal was going too far.

Taking a deep breath, she made a decision.

 

Akko hated reading, but this was different. The book was for kids, and it had tons of pretty drawings. The drawings were so pretty that Akko wanted to know what was going on in them, so she actually read to find out. She had been reading all afternoon, up until classes ended. Diana hadn’t come back to check on her, for some reason. Maybe she was too busy with school.

It was a simple story about a girl lost in the woods and got found by a witch. However, unlike normal witches like the ones training in Luna Nova, or the popular perception kind with warts and big cauldrons to cook children in, this was a primal witch. The kind that was powerful enough to create her pocket dimensions casually. The kind that allegedly ate children’s souls to keep their power running.

The girl, upon hearing a beautiful song, ran into the forest to search for its source. Finding it came from the witch, she observed it carefully. The witch didn’t find out, and the girl came back every day to listen to the song.

However, the song was a trap. In truth, the girl had never left. From the second she heard the song, she was trapped. She hadn’t hidden from the witch, she had just gotten trapped in a bush and therefore the witch had never made her way towards the witch. From there, everything was a hallucination.

What she believed had been days was just a few hours, and when the witch finally found her, she took her to her cottage in the forest.

The girl didn’t come back home that night. Or any other night.

“That’s how witches created new ones.” A voice made her jump, and her magic transferring spell was cut. “Oh, hello Diana. I took your advice.” Akko showed her the book with pride. Diana nodded approvingly. “What did you say?”

“That’s how witches of old found apprentices. They kidnapped them and taught them the secrets of magic.” The blonde explained. Akko nodded appreciatively. The story wasn’t something she particularly liked, but the drawings were so beautiful that she believed they could be showcased in a museum and people would praise them. Not that they had to be in a museum to be praised, but well, museums were the easy place for- “Akko, we need to talk.” Diana said.

Perking up, the brunette instantly got a worried expression. That sounded extremely bad.

“How did I mess up?” She asked. Diana raised an eyebrow.

“What? Not about that. I mean, yeah, you’ve messed up in a bunch of ways, but… Anyways, look, I think we should tell the others about this.” Diana explained. She eyed the bed, as if she wanted to sit down, but picked the chair to do so instead. Akko was slightly disappointed, still remembering the feeling of Diana’s head against her shoulder.

“Are you sure? It’s only a week…” Akko still wasn’t certain of why she didn’t want others finding out. Maybe it was the fact that this was probably the only thing she shared with Diana alone at the time, something she hadn’t done since she had tried to leave and the missile crisis last year.

“And Amanda already misinterpreted the situation, my teammates think I’m acting strange and yours are worried. I believe we ought to explain to them before this situation gets out of hand.” Diana sat primly, and she alternated looking at Akko and the egg. “Also, don’t you think it would be for the best to have them help with Ouroboros?”

Akko nodded weakly. Diana could probably read the hesitance in her face, since she hummed in the low. What she had said made sense, Uruoburus would be easier to handle if more people knew about it.

“Good.” Diana continued. “Come in, then.” She raised her voice, speaking to the outside. Seven witches entered the room.

“I can’t believe you let _Akko_ alone in our room all morning.” Hannah said as soon as she saw the brunette.

“You didn’t break anything, did you?” Barbara asked looking around. Akko, offended by the comments, showed them her tongue. She hadn’t broken anything! She hadn’t moved from bed all morning!

Diana had something to do with that, though.

“I can’t believe a dragon trusted _Akko_ with her egg.” Sucy stepped forward, putting her hand near the black egg. “It really is hot. Like a portable heater.” She commented, earning a frown from Akko. “What? Just saying.” She rolled her eyes, stepping back.

“This is amazing.” Lotte commented. “So this is what that spirit meant by weird magical vibes yesterday…” She mumbled.

“So that’s the famous dragon egg.” Amanda examined it as closely as she could. “Thought it’d look more… Dunno, powerful or something.” She shrugged. “So the plan is to hatch it before the end of the week, right?”

“Why would we want to hatch it?” Hannah sounded horrified. “It’s a _dragon_ for the Nine Olde Witches, you can’t just hatch something like that in school!”

Constanze pointed her wand at the egg. The wand was connected to a screen she examined closely. Jasminka was looking at it too, eating some snacks.

“Because it’d be fun, duh.” Amanda commented. “Not that you’d know much about that, would you?” She said with a chuckle. Hannah opened her mouth to reply, but didn’t come up with a comeback soon enough.

“Because once it’s born, the dragon will be able to live on his own.” Diana explained. “And Akko won’t have to be distracted by it anymore.”

“And then she’d get distracted by something else…” Hannah shut up when everyone gave her a warning look. “Look, I’m just saying, having a dragon egg hatch in school doesn’t sound safe.”

“Diana said that if you keep them company while they’re in their eggs they won’t be aggressive once they’re born.” Akko recalled. What she had said wasn’t exactly right, but the details were unimportant. Probably. “Also, we’re only going to try for a week. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll just

Hannah looked at Diana, who nodded. Then, she sighed. “Fine, whatever, I’ll help.”

“I think we’re going to have to rearrange the room a little if we’re going to do this.” She mentioned. Right now, the seven standing witches were rather cramped in the small space that was Diana’s improvised room. Everyone agreed.

 

They rearranged the room rather quickly with magic. Setting the couches and beds in a way that allowed everyone to sit and see the egg, they all stared at it.

“So now we throw magic at it?” Lotte asked, uncomfortable. “You sure it won’t cause any harm?” She looked at Diana.

“I tried my most powerful spells with it. Believe me when I say Ouroboros is absolutely immune to magic.” The blonde said with self confidence.

“Wait, you named it Ouroboros?” Amanda said, taking out her wand with an amused smile. “That’s like some world ending shit, right?”

“It’s just a term used for snakes or dragons eating their own tails. It’s representative of unending cycles.” Diana rolled her eyes at Amanda’s ignorance. The redhead looked at Akko’s wand for a second before snapping her fingers. Then, she casted a spell.

The spell was an attack one. It shot out of her wand like a laser beam and into the egg. “Man, I’ve always wanted to do this!” She cried. “Didn’t have the right chance, with the waste in magic it is and all. Plus no one would like their trees to all like Swiss cheese.” She looked excited.

Diana carried a hand to her chin. “Well, that is a more effective spell than the magic transferring one…” She considered the option for a while. Then she imagined Akko missing and blowing up her room. She felt kind of bad for always thinking that Akko would mess up, but the facts spoke for themselves. “But I’d rather keep things safe.” She shook her head.

“Well, if we want it to hatch as soon as possible, then this might be a better way. You said this thing could take centuries, right? But that’s on the natural. What’s the difference in magic absorption?” Lotte was trying to do the maths.

“I don’t really know.” Diana shook her head. “But if I had to guess, I’d say a transfer spell feeds it at least ten times as much magic as it naturally gets in a minute. It might be more, or it might be less.”

“So it goes from two hundred years to twenty years?” Hannah asked as everyone started casting their own spells. With resignation, she casted her own. “Well, that sounds great.”

“Well, there’s nine of us doing this now.” Akko said. “Who knows, maybe it’ll be less!”

“I highly doubt it’ll take less than a week, Akko.” Sucy snorted. “But it will be an interesting experiment.”

“So, we’re totally skipping classes to do this, right?” Amanda said.

Diana sighed. Maybe telling them hadn’t been such a great idea.


	7. Side couple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah, Diana and Akko have a heart to heart to heart, Amanda invites Hannah to hang out.

When most girls had left for dinner, only Hannah, Diana and Akko remained in the room.

“We can take care of this, Akko, just go.” Hannah stared daggers at her.

“Hannah, would you mind being kinder to Akko?” Diana sighed. Hannah was taken aback. It wasn’t usual for her to interfere. “This is, after all, her egg.”

“If it’s hers, why should we…” She didn’t continue, knowing that if she finished that sentence there was no going back. Diana tended to overlook these kinds of comments, but something on her expression this time told Hannah that this was not going to be that easy. “Nevermind.”

“It’s ok.” Akko stood, cutting her spell. “I should probably ask Lotte for a copy of her notes anyways.” She laughed nervously.

“No, Akko, stay.” Diana looked at the auburn haired witch with a neutral expression. Her mask. “Hannah, you’ve been particularly mean the last couple of days. Is there any reason? Has Akko done you wrong?”

Hannah frowned. She knew why she acted like she did, but saying it out loud would have felt silly. She took a few moments to gather her thoughts, in which Akko shifted awkwardly in place.

“Hannah, I would appreciate it if you answered my question.” The blonde narrowed her eyes. The tension in the room was such that no one noticed the door opening.

“I... It’s just unfair.” Hannah mumbled, trying to voice how she felt. Diana kept her eyes focused on her, Akko cocked her head. “Just when you think she’s normalized, she goes and starts acting all... _Akko_ again.” She shook her head. She didn’t really want to explain. “I can understand that she’s careless, clumsy and hyperactive. There are lots of people like that.” She looked straight at the floor. She didn’t want to meet either Diana’s or Akko’s eyes. “But how many of them end up actually taking advantage of that?” She was gripping the hem of her skirt with strength, no longer casting the spell. “She brought you back to Luna Nova, she restored magic to the world and she helped stop a damn war.” Her voice was steady, but low in volume. “And then yesterday, after a year or so of nothing really important happening, she appears in the morning, way before anyone normal is up, and stays in the room with you alone. I’m not stupid, you know?” She sighed. “I knew something was up. And I knew you were keeping some kind of secret for her. You _never_ skip class, Diana. How very convenient that the day Akko shows up you decide to stay in bed.” A defeated laugh left her mouth. “And today she didn’t show up to class and you missed an entire period. Turns out it was a freaking _dragon egg_ she was hiding. Why her? What makes _her_ special?” She finally looked up, pointing at Akko. “Of all the people in the world _she_ , who doesn’t come from a magic family, who is childish and disrespectful. Just when I was starting to see her as a normal student again she goes and does _this.”_ Pointing at the egg. “She drags you into, then all of us get involved too. And you seem to enjoy it, which is...” She was at a loss for words. “I just... Want to have an adventure too.” She confessed, slumping into her seat.

Diana stood and walked to her. Hannah cringed, thinking she was going to say something bad. Why wouldn’t she? Hannah was childish and stupid, just like Akko.

Instead, she sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. She said nothing. There was nothing to be said, after all. Hannah understood.

“I’m sorry.” Hannah finished, looking at Akko. “I know it’s not really your fault. I’m just mean.”

Akko nodded. “Don’t worry, we can still be friends, if you want to.” She extended a hand. Hannah rolled her eyes, of course she would be that easy to convince. Taking the hand, Hannah returned the smile.

“And,” A fourth voice in the room made everyone jump with surprise. “If you want an adventure, you should’ve said so!” Amanda was standing there, looking at the strange trio with curiosity.

“Weren’t you at the cafeteria?” Hannah asked, blushing. Great now Amanda of all people had heard her.

“I came to look for one of Jasna’s snacks.” She looked around the room and then leaned behind a couch. “Here.” She showed a bag of cookies to them. “But hey, if you still want to have an adventure, then let’s go to town this Friday night. I have a place that’s going to tire you out for sure.”

“Why would I accept your offer?” Hannah wondered if she was asleep. This felt surreal.

“Eh, that’s your choice, not mine.” Amanda shrugged. “Well, see you at dinner.” She waved and left the room.

Diana sighed. “I thank you for opening up.” She said, standing. “But I believe we should follow her example and go to the cafeteria, dinner is waiting.”

“I’m starving.” Akko stood too. Hannah followed, feeling strangely relieved. “Hey, how about we sit together?” The brunette looked at them both. “You can teach me how to say Urboruos right!”

“It’s not that hard of a word, Akko…” Hannah stated. For the first time, however, she didn’t do it out of arrogance.

It felt strangely nice.

 

Thursday and Friday passed rather quickly. Diana, of course, didn’t let girls skip class for nothing, but after asking the teachers permission for a research – it was hard to justify nine people involved, but with Diana being the one speaking, they didn’t question it too much – they took turns in pairs to feed magic to Ouroboros.

Friday afternoon came, and the last period of class of the week was given to Diana and Akko. Amanda was not going to miss broom-flying and the other girls had already taken a turn on the day.

So they were sitting in the room, shooting magic at the giant egg, in silence.

Diana was reading a book, as always. Akko stared her, feeling contempt just from that. It was incredibly not boring to see the blonde flip pages while keeping one hand aiming at the egg.

After their chat with Hannah a couple days prior, they hadn’t gotten much time together. Akko was bothered by this for some reason. She somehow remembered the little time they’d spent together earlier in the week as if it had been weeks of bonding.

She puffed her cheeks while thinking, trying to figure out why she felt the way she felt. Diana was probably one of the only two witches she actually looked up to, the other one being, obviously, Chariot. She hadn’t seen much of the teacher the past week, now that she thought about it, but that was beside the point. When Diana scolded her, she felt bad for disappointing her. When Diana praised her, she was exuberant. Sometimes she wished to be the center of the blonde’s attention, others she wished she could vanish from the face of the earth so that she wouldn’t find her.

And back when Diana had slept on her shoulder, she had felt happy, despite the weird thoughts .

So that was it, apparently. Happiness seemed to be the connecting factor. When Diana was angry, Akko was unhappy with herself. When Diana was happy, Akko was happy.

But, if Diana was neutral, just studying in that moment, why did _that_ make her happy? Because she simply enjoyed the company? She hadn’t been so joyous the day before when she had shared a period with Jasminka. Sure, they had talked, but this was on a completely different level.

Diana seemed to notice her strangeness. Looking up from her book, she raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

“I’m just thinking.” Akko said.

“Would you mind not staring at me so directly, then? I find it quite distracting.” The blonde explained.

“Well, I’m thinking about you, so...” Akko didn’t really think much about what she was saying. Maybe asking Diana would help? She doubted it; these were her feelings, not Diana’s.

Diana opened her mouth as if to say something, but ended up shaking her head and going back to her book.

Akko kept staring, trying to sort things out.

 

This had been a horrible idea.

_‘Why’_ Hannah asked herself _, ‘did I ever agree to this?’_

The line in front of her was long. Twenty persons long, at least. Men and woman alike, all dressed in various styles of clothing, from casual t-shirts and jeans to slim dresses with big cleavages. Makeup, perfume and deodorant almost asphyxiated Hannah as she waited. She herself was wearing a simple white blouse with a fashionable blue skirt that down to just above the knees, accompanied by a couple of platform sandals. Her hair was in her usual ponytail, though she had worn a black ribbon instead of her usual yellow. She also wore a shawl to avoid getting too cold, but Amanda had warned her about heat indoors.

She had forgotten to mention the fact that they were going to a night club.

Hannah had never gone to one. When she went to parties at night, she went to high-class ones, where they’d have dinner and maybe dance. And when she danced, she did so with elegance, not with reckless energy. Music was barely heard from the inside, like a loud, persistent thumping that got muffled by the walls. Saying that Hannah was nervous was an understatement; she was terrified.

The night club, from the outside, matched the general aesthetic of the town. The walls were painted a baby pink, the roof was of red tiles and it had a single floor that one could see. However, it lacked windows, and Hannah had seen that the entrance was a staircase towards a lower level. Each time the door opened, bright colorful lights slipped outside the building.

Amanda, next to her, wasn’t nearly as tense as she was. She wore comfortable clothing: A black t-shirt, an open jacket and jeans, topped with a couple of sneakers. 

“Don’t look so worried, I’ll be there with you.” Amanda noticed her state of mind. “It’ll be fun, I promise.”

“Aren’t we minors? They’re not going to let us in!” Hannah hissed. Amanda looked at her with a raised eyebrow and took something from her pocket. An ID. One that said she was twenty years old. “You falsified your ID?”

“I falsified yours too. Rather easy to do with magic.” She shrugged. Hannah didn’t feel any better about that.

After another five minutes, they reached the front of the line. The gorilla of a man at the entrance, wearing a completely black suit and sunglasses, asked for their IDs. Hannah tried to avoid showing her nervousness, and after some examination, the man gave them the cards back and opened the door for them.

The music hit instantly. It was so loud that Hannah could barely even hear her thoughts. As they climbed down the staircase it got louder. Colorful lights transformed the short walk into an experience.

And they reached the dance floor.

It was bigger than she had expected. At that moment there were probably two hundred people in there, and they were not particularly cramped. To the right she noticed a bar, to the left were the bathrooms. In the center of the room the lights moved and flickered, making it kind of hard to see. Lots of people – most of them teenagers and young adults – danced to the music, if that repetitive electronic beat that dominated Hannah’s ears could be considered music. Not that what they did could be considered dancing either.

The look of disapproval must have been obvious, because Amanda pushed her forward. “Come on, now!” She shouted so that her voice would be heard over the music. “Let me show you how to have fun!”

 

Amanda had gathered a small audience. Hannah’s dance was awkward. She was nervous, inexperienced and most of all, far too rich to understand the simple joy of dancing with a bunch of strangers. The redhead, however, was used to it. She followed the rhythm with her body without thinking much and people around her were cheering as they saw her spin with elegance, stand on her hands with grace and overall leaving their own dancing abilities in the dust with overwhelming athletic abilities.

When she was done, even Hannah had stopped to watch her, awed.

“Man, I need a drink.” Amanda said, fixing her hair and jacket back into their normal positions. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with a napkin and looked towards the bar.

Hannah nodded absently, following her. It was still early in night club standards, so it was relatively easy to move through the dance floor. The place wouldn’t be packed for at least another couple of hours. Once they reached the bar, Amanda decided to order a couple of colas. Not that she minded alcohol, but Hannah probably wouldn’t like it.

“So, how are you doing?” She said in a normal voice. Here in the bar the music wasn’t so loud that they couldn’t hear each other if they stuck close.

“Fine.” Hannah lied, starting to drink. It was pretty obvious. She was eyeing a corner near the bar. The couple’s corner, as they called it. A dark spot – left on purpose – so that couples could go and do what they wanted. Some took it too far, though.

“You’re not really enjoying this, are you?” Amanda asked. Hannah shrugged, making the redhead sigh. Her intention bringing Hannah to the night club was that she believed her to be smart enough to know how to get into the mood, and maybe something else. She had underestimated her upbringing, apparently. “Ok, here.” She offered a hand. “If this isn’t the kind of adventure you want I’ll give you one that you won’t forget for sure.”

Hannah raised an eyebrow as she sipped at her cola. Rolling her eyes, she took the hand.


	8. Bell tower.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hamanda stuff wraps up here to leave room for the final arc or something like that.

Diana laid on her bed, ready to go to sleep. With the new setup of the room her bed was not covered by the bookshelf, so she felt slightly exposed, but that didn’t matter much. She’d just put it back in place after the week was over.

She felt strangely satisfied. During the afternoon, before classes ended, she had spent a good amount of alone-time with Akko. She had gotten studying in, but the brunette’s comment still dominated her thoughts. ‘ _I’m thinking about you’_ was such a simple thing, yet it could mean so much. Diana doubted Akko understood the concept of flirting, so that was definitely not it. However, what _did_ she mean, then?

With a grunt, she closed her eyes. Trying to figure out what was going on through Akko’s head could take a whole week; she was certainly not going to figure it out in a single go.

Right now she’d sleep. She could ask tomorrow.

 

Hannah felt free.

The oppressive atmosphere of the night club had left her numb mentally; she still felt the thumping of the music in her head. However, that really helped put into perspective just how pretty things could look at night in the city.

They were sitting atop a big church, in the bell tower of it. The bell wasn’t there anymore, it was just a speaker nowadays. The city below glowed with orange street lights. Roofs dark, streets bright, the contrast created a maze of colour that extended to the horizon, only interrupted by mountains in the distance.

“You should’ve just brought me here from the beginning, though I fail to see how this is much of an adventure.” Hannah commented, feeling a cold breeze blow through her. She hugged herself, trying to keep warm.

“Are you cold?” Amanda asked, ignoring her. Hannah nodded, suddenly feeling a chill not related to her temperature. Then, just as she expected it, Amanda offered her jacket to her. “My fault. I thought we’d spend more time in the club. Take this.”

Hannah hesitated, but ended up taking the offer. She had seen this scene one too many times in romance novels. But Amanda was not a boy, so it didn’t really count. Probably. The jacket did make her warmer, and the redhead didn’t seem to mind the cold.

“Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” Hannah asked after a moment of silence.

“Nope, but who’s going to notice?” She chuckled.

Hannah sighed, and they stood in silence for a while longer, enjoying the view. They were both resting on the stone railing, relaxed.

Amanda took a step closer to Hannah, as if she wouldn’t notice. Hannah pretended not to.

“You know what you said the other day?” Amanda asked. Hannah nodded, of course she’d remember. “It kind of struck a chord with me, you know.” She continued. “Not to the same extent, I think, but I’ve thought the same things about Akko many times. Hell, most of you don’t know this, but she’s also the reason I’m still in Luna Nova.”

Hannah perked up. She didn’t know that story. “How so?”

“Long story short, I wanted to leave, we had an adventure, I decided to stay.” She shrugged. Hannah sighed heavily.

“Of course you had. Everyone has gone in adventures with Akko except Barbara and me, apparently.”  She rested her head on her arms, closing her eyes. “Guess I can’t complain much, I haven’t been a great friend to Akko anyways.”

“No, you haven’t.” Amanda gave her the reason.

“Gee, thanks” Hannah said flatly.

“But that’s why what you did the other day was amazing, if you ask me. To admit your mistakes and say sorry isn’t easy.” The redhead moved a little bit closer, but Hannah didn’t mind. She looked at her, meeting a couple of emerald eyes.

“Why did you invite me?” Hannah asked. Amanda wasn’t touching her, but she was close enough that she could feel her warmth.

“Well, two reasons.” She smiled. “First, I thought you might want a break. Didn’t think you’d do so awful at the club.” She looked away, apologetically. Then, she stood in silence for a while.

“And the second reason is...?” Hannah prompted.

“Too soon.” Amanda replied. Hannah raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t get it.” What did she mean, too soon?

“Maybe it’s better that way.” Amanda laughed nervously. The realization fell upon the auburn-haired girl. She doubted, wondering if she should say something or not.

“You realize we’ve exchanged words like ten times in the entire past year, right?” She asked.

“Hey, the heart does what the heart wants.” She shrugged, not looking at her. Hannah sighed, surprised by her lack of annoyance at the situation. She noticed, however, that Amanda was now hugging herself.

“Here.” She opened the jacket, inviting Amanda in. The redhead raised an eyebrow. “Don’t read too much into it, I just noticed you’re cold too and this is _your_ jacket after all.”

The redhead smirked, stepping closer. They pressed their bodies together so that the jacket would cover them both. Yeah, this was totally out of a romance novel, but now she had initiated the move.

“So, by adventure,” Hannah started again. “you meant adventure of the heart? Thought you’d make me fall in love with you with dance moves or whatever?” She looked at the redhead. Had her eyes always been that bright or was it the reflection of the light from below?

“Well, you must admit.” Amanda chuckled. “I do have some killer moves.”

Hannah chuckled too, playfully pushing her with an elbow. However, they didn’t break eye contact.

“You really think something like _us_ could work?” Hannah asked. She wasn’t sure of what she believed anymore.

“Hey, if something like Diana and Akko can, why not?” She leaned a little, drawing their faces closer.

“Ah, so you’ve seen it too.” Hannah didn’t back down. Amanda’s breath smelled like cola.

“Yeah, kinda.” She shrugged, getting even closer. The tips of their noses were near each other and a familiar feeling appeared on the bridge of Hannah’s nose. Not unpleasant, just strange, like a weak electric current. It happened whenever something strange to her body got to close to her nose and lingered there for seconds. She didn’t understand it, but of course, she was also aware of the fact that probably everybody felt it.

It didn’t last long, as Amanda rushed the last segment and softly kissed her. It was a simple, two seconds kiss. Still it warmed her entire body.

“Think we’ll be too obvious too?”

“Doubt it.”

They looked at each other in silence for what felt like an eternity. “Can I kiss you again?” Amanda asked.

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Of course.” She said.

 

Chariot ran towards Luna Nova, panting.

Going into Arcturus Forest hadn’t been such a great idea when she couldn’t fly. The roomba that followed her kept reminding her of that. The sun hadn’t yet appeared over the horizon, but she had been near a week absent from Luna Nova investigating something.

_[I’m just saying]_ Croix’s voice came from the thing. _[You could just step into my Sorcery Unit and LIVE!]_

“I would also have higher chances of living if you didn’t pester me, you know!” Chariot stopped a second to recover her breath. However, in the distance, she heard a few trees cracking, followed by the thumping of giant steps.

_[Chariot, I’m begging you, please let me carry you back to Luna Nova. I know you don’t like my magic but for the love of all magical things in this world I don’t want you to die]_ Croix continued as Chariot resumed her run.

The red haired teacher didn’t want anything to do with the flying roomba. She had allowed Croix to accompany her – partially, since she was still inside a prison cell – mostly because she had wanted someone to talk. But she refused to use the device to fly, no matter how effective could it be, no matter how life-threatening the situation. Those devices had been basically what had cost her the ability to fly. Croix knew this, and that’s why she tried to help, but she didn’t really understand how Chariot felt.

Not that it mattered at the moment.

_[I calculated its trajectory. That thing_ is _going to Luna Nova after all.]_ Croix commented. _[Look, just running you’re going to waste hours that could be spent preparing. Please, let me help you.]_ She said in a pleading tone. Chariot couldn’t see her face, but she was certain Croix would be trying not to let the worry show on it.

She stopped running. “You make a good point. But don’t think this will become the norm.” She sat on the flying device. “I’m doing this for my students.”

_[Thanks lord. Come on, let’s go.]_ The flying roomba started to go up into the air, and Chariot took the opportunity to look back at the beast.

_‘I have a really bad feeling about this.’_

Constanze had bags under her eyes, hidden by a couple of goggles that she used as she worked. She was aware that, at some point during the night, Amanda had come back to the room. She didn’t remember when, she didn’t care. Time was meaningless during weekends; all that mattered was work and her next projects.

This time, she was analyzing the dragon egg.

By calculating the amount of magic disappearing around it in a normal state, and juxtaposing it with the amount of magic disappearing around it when they all threw spells at it, she could calculate exactly how much they accelerated it’s growing and therefore explain to everyone how close they were to their goal.

It wasn’t an easy process. It had taken the three days she’d been with the egg to take all the data, and she would have liked to run some extra tests on it so that she could be one hundred percent sure about her results.

Yet, when she finally saw the results, she was rather excited. Reading them, her tiredness slowly faded as her mind filled with new calculations. Something felt strangely familiar about the data on her hands, as if she had seen it somewhere before.

Taking a deep breath, she accepted that she was not going to sleep and started to look for old data.

When Akko woke up the sun had just appeared.

She dressed quickly, avoiding making much of a ruckus and waking up her teammates.

Somehow, after just a single week, this routine had become natural to her. Waking up early in the morning wasn’t so hard, particularly when she could look forward to meeting with Diana.

As every morning, before entering the blue team’s room, she knocked. Quick to answer, Barbara opened and let her in. She was still wearing her pyjama. However, the anomaly today was Hannah, who was still lying in bed.

“She was out until late yesterday” Barbara whispered. Akko nodded, quickly taking the place that had become hers surrounding the egg and casted her spell.

Diana came out of the bathroom already wearing her uniform and sat next to Akko.

“Good morning.” She whispered. The brunette’s reply was an indecipherable mumble. Barbara sat across from them, looking at the pair with curious eyes.

“Hey, Akko, can I ask you something?” Diana asked quietly, so much so that Barbara probably wouldn’t hear them. Akko nodded, focusing in her voice, extremely soothing in the silence.

Right as Diana was about to say something, however, the bell rang.

No, wait, it sounded different than the bell. And it was too early for that. And nevermind early, it was Saturday!

“The alarm.” Diana whispered, standing up. “Akko, let’s hide the egg.” She looked at Akko with a worried expression, and unable to fully understand what was going on, the brunette simply nodded and helped Diana with it.

Why had someone raised an alarm so early on a Saturday?


	9. Emergency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls find out why the alarm was raised.

Diana was the first to arrive at the entrance of the school, the designated area for emergencies, being surprised to see Chariot with a flying device behind her. She recognized the flying roomba as one of Croix’s magitech devices.

Chariot was quietly talking with Headmistress Holbrooke. Preoccupation showed in her face and she didn’t notice Diana until she was next to her. “Good morning, Headmistress, Professor.” She greeted with a respectful nod.

“Oh, hello, Diana.” Chariot smiled at her. “Should have guessed you’d be the first one to show up.” She was trying to keep calm, Diana noticed, but she wasn’t doing a great job.

“Can I ask what the reason for raising the alarm is?” Diana, too, was trying to appear calm. She had looked for signs of a fire or some other obvious threat, but none appeared. And Akko was with her so she wasn’t the cause of whatever was happening. Probably.

Chariot pretended not to hear.

Other students slowly started to come into the entrance, most of them wearing pyjamas. Rubbing their eyes and grunting in annoyance, they started to form ranks as was instructed to them at the start of each year. Soon enough, Akko appeared, dressed in uniform too and earning a lot of stranged looks. Of all people present, she was the one wearing a uniform?

“Chariot!” She exclaimed as soon as she saw the red haired teacher, diving forward to hug her. “What’s going on?”

“Akko, how are you doing?” Chariot ignored the question looking as more and more sleepy students flooded the entrance. Some were shivering with cold.

“Now girls, please go to your places.” Headmistress Holbrooke said with an abnormally serious tone for her. Diana nodded, and pulled Akko along. The entire situation was starting to give her goosebumps.

After another five minutes, they finally managed to stay quiet enough for Headmistress Holbrooke to step into the air with a simple levitation spell. Then, making a magic megaphone, she started speaking.

“I want you all to remain calm. I have been informed of a threat to our facilities.” The tiny old witch started, and Diana frowned. Soft chattering started among the students. “A magical beast of greater proportions that we’re equipped to handle is, for some reason, on its way towards our school.” She raised a hand to hush the rising volume of the students. “We are, right now, contacting your parents, and we will ask you to peacefully go to your rooms, pack the things you want as fast as possible, and get ready to depart.”

The blonde looked down, feeling the gears in her head start to turn. Magical beast that the school isn’t prepared to deal with? As far as she understood, very few things could be that dangerous. Dragons, Giants, Wyverns, Liches, some higher beings that would have no reason to attack and... Hydras?

Hydras.

_‘We have a dragon egg at school.’_

She started to raise a hand. If that was the creature, she had to tell the headmistress about the egg. However, she stopped herself. _‘I need to talk to Akko about this.’_ But why? Why did she think that? Now that she thought about it, she was certain she was right. Hydras loved dragon eggs, it made sense. So shouldn’t she put the safety of everyone above a single egg?

And then, Akko’s breakdown of Monday night came back to her.

“Go, now!” The headmistress finished, and all the students started to rapidly walk towards their rooms.

Diana didn’t go to hers right away. Instead, she found the only other student in uniform, who was obviously also looking for her.

She dragged her outside the room and towards the courtyard.

“Akko, I think this has something to do with the Dragon Egg.” Diana said in a low voice as soon as she was sure nobody would hear them. Akko cocked her head. “I think the beast they’re talking about is a hydra. We need to tell Chariot about the egg.”

Diana could see the brunette’s soul drop to her feet as her expression changed. “Wait, you mean, those who wouldn’t stop at anything to eat a dragon egg, right?” She paled. “You’re not saying...”

“No, of course not.” Diana shook her head. “But if this is our fault then it is our responsibility to deal with it. Please.” She pleaded, trying to get Akko to understand. Surprisingly enough, Akko’s face changed.

“You promise?” She asked. Was that determination? Diana nodded, slightly surprised by the change of mood. “Then I trust you.” Her big red eyes looked intensely at the blonde.

They left the courtyard, ready to talk to chariot.

 

Akko wasn’t as sure as she had appeared, but she did trust Diana.

If whatever was going on really was her fault – and something within her told her that was the case, because _of course_ it was her fault – she wanted to help, somehow.

So, when they went back to the entrance, Chariot gave them an ‘of course’ look.

“Girls, you should be packing.” She said with some hesitance. Akko didn’t really know what to say, so she looked at Diana. The blonde took a deep breath.

“Could the beast you were talking about be, maybe, a hydra?” She didn’t lose any time. Akko tried to recall what she knew of hydras. They had many heads, and when you cut one two appeared from the severed neck, or something like that? And you had to kill it with fire, right?

Chariot sighed. “How did you figure it out, Diana?” She looked at Akko, who let out an awkward laugh as a response. The teacher knew her well enough. “Please don’t tell me it has something to do with you two.”

Diana cleared her throat, uncomfortable, meeting Akko’s eyes. Akko nodded, giving approval. Why was Diana suddenly asking for her approval, now that she thought about it. In the past she wouldn’t have hesitated to just tell the teachers, particularly when all of the school was in danger.

Maybe there was something else she also considered important, Akko believed.

Waited until Diana prompted her to tell the story of how she got the egg. After they both were finished, Chariot sighed again. “Oh Akko, your heart’s too big for your own good.” The teacher smiled, patting Akko’s head. The headmistress, who had been silently listening, nodded thoughtfully.

“Wait, so there’s a giant many-headed monster coming to get us?” Suddenly, a redhead wearing light green pyjamas appeared from behind one of the pillars of the entrance. After them, another six witches popped their heads from behind other pillars.

Of course, they were their friends. Akko looked at all of them, surprised, trying to figure out how in hell had she not seen them.

“Girls, I beg of you, go pack...” She didn’t sound convinced. All nine teenagers looked at her with knowing looks. “You do understand there’s probably nothing you can do, right? Akko, this egg, you’re not willing to give it up, are you?”

“Ouroboros is going to hatch even if it’s in a hundred years!” The brunette said. She knew Chariot was only asking for protocol. The headmistress looked at them all with interest and then smiled like she usually did.

“You know that I am legally required to tie you all up and send you home on force if needed, girls?” She asked, the hint of humour showing in her voice.

“Y-you wouldn’t do that, right?” Hannah asked, laughing nervously.

“Well, I guess I could wait until the hydra is so close to the school that I can no longer ignore it...” She started to walk towards the door. “Which should be by tonight.” She said before disappearing in the hallway.

The ten remaining witches took a few seconds to internalize the information.

“Ok, so we need to kill it before it reaches this place, right?” Amanda was the first one to speak.

“That is way too dangerous for you girls.” Chariot gave the redhead a harsh look.

_[And Hydras are immune to magic. Unless you have herculean strength and a big ass sword, you won’t be killing it]_ A voice came from the roomba. Akko looked at it confused. Was that Croix’s voice?

“Hey, weren’t you in prison?” The brunette asked.

_[I am]_

“Ah.” What was the point of being in prison if they allowed her to go out via flying roomba? Well, not that it mattered right now. Diana cleared her throat to catch everyone’s attention.

“I believe the only way to get rid of the hydra is to figure out how to hide the egg from it.” She looked at Akko. “You said the dragon had it below her, right? Maybe her own scent masked Ouroboros’, seems like a plausible defence mechanism.” The blonde explained. Akko nodded, starting to think.

“So we need a dragon!” She exclaimed. Everyone eyed her. “Oh, no, that’s stupid.” She looked down, trying to think of another way. She glanced at Diana, hoping that she would come up with something. Diana always had a plan.

This time was, apparently, an exception to the rule.

“First we need more information on hydras.” Diana commented. “I’ll go to the library. Lotte, could you help me?” She looked at the shy redhead, who nodded.

“Maybe I can mask the essence of the egg with poison. Or kill the Hydra’s nostrils.” Sucy commented. Diana nodded, which prompted Sucy to leave.

“Wouldn’t taking the egg away help?” Akko asked. “Maybe if I get into a leyline and-”

“Akko, with a dragon egg, the leyline wouldn’t let you get in. Remember what happened when you brought salt with you?” Chariot commented, making Akko flush at the memory of her first time going through a leyline. “Well, if leylines don’t like salt, imagine how they feel about dragon eggs. And flying away wouldn’t help, once the hydra has the scent of the egg it won’t let it go.”

“If only there was a way of hatching the egg.” Diana said mostly to herself.

“I’m going to keep working on that.” Akko said instantly, eager to try and help. Diana, however, shook her head.

“It wouldn’t be enough, Akko. I doubt that even if everyone at school threw their most powerful spells at the egg for the entire day it’d hatch.” Diana explained, making Akko feel useless again.

Constanze perked up at this comment, suddenly running off.

“Well _I_ am going to see if it has a weak spot or anything.” Amanda declared, walking away to her room. Probably to change. What was strange was how, after some hesitance, Hannah decided to follow with a worried expression.

“Wouldn’t contacting the authorities help?” Barbara asked.

“We already did that, but they’ll take a while to appear.” Chariot explained.

“Maybe we can feed it something else.” Jasminka commented. Even this early in the morning she was already eating. Akko wondered if she also ate while sleeping.

“It’s a possibility, maybe...” Diana hesitated. “I’m not very knowledgeable in magic foods. Could you help with the research too, Jasminka?”

The pink haired girl nodded.

“There was a volume of Nightfall where a hydra was involved. Maybe we can get ideas from there?” Barbara said with some hesitance.

“It could be worth a shot.” Diana commented. Wait, when had Diana become the leader of the group?

Now Akko was the only one without a job.

She started to get slightly anxious. If everyone had something to do but her, then it would be like she caused the trouble but then didn’t do anything to help.

No, she was not going to accept that. She started to think, hard. She noticed the look Diana was giving her, probably going through the same dilemma in her head. Then, something occurred to her.

“Wait, are Hydras intelligent?” She asked. Diana raised an eyebrow.

“I believe so.” Chariot said.

“I mean, can they talk, like dragons?” Akko rephrased her question. Chariot and Diana interchanged a worried look.

“Yes...” The teacher said carefully. Akko smiled, an idea sparking in her mind. This earned her worried looks from everyone present.

“Then I’ll go with Amanda.” The brunette declared, turning around, ready to go. She didn’t need to explain her plan, she could tell everyone had figured it out.

However, before she could take off, Diana grabbed her wrist. Akko turned, trying not to be weird about the touch.

“If you’re doing what I think you’ll be doing, please be careful.” The blonde said, looking genuinely worried for the first time in a long time. ‘ _So pretty.’_ Was the first think crossing Akko’s mind. She shook her head, this was not the moment.

“I promise.” Akko said. Diana nodded weakly, and slowly released her grip. Akko felt like maybe she should say something more, but she didn’t want to lose time.

She ran towards Amanda’s room, which was basically next to hers.

 

 


	10. Hydra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko tries to talk to the hydra, the other girls try to help in their own ways.

The sun was already up, and it didn’t take much effort to see the seven-headed giant walking through the forest, all of its snake-like heads staying a good ten meters above the taller trees. Each neck was thrice as thick as a tree trunk, and the scales of the creature were black in the heads but slowly degraded into red for the body. While from time to time it appeared to trip on things, it moved slowly and rather efficiently. Where one would have expected to see a trail of destruction there was nothing but some missing leaves and scared animals.

Akko was equally amazed and terrified.

Amanda and Hannah flew by her side. Akko wondered why Hannah was with them, she would probably have been more useful in research, but not that it mattered.

“I’m going down!” Akko cried, trying not to sound too scared. Hydras didn’t eat humans, right?

She lowered her broom, getting closer to the creature. Its scales reflected the morning sun in ways that made Akko have to look away more than once, and the sounds of each step it took were ominous. Like the ticking of a clock, it felt like whatever was going to happen was inevitable. But that’s why Akko was there.

Drawing closer to it, she started to notice other details. The green eyes with the vertical pupils, the way some heads seemed to be communicating with each other and the realization that the middle head was looking straight at her.

Luckily, it didn’t attack.

“Ehm...” Once she levelled herself with the heads, she tried to say something, but the way every head instantly snapped to look at her intensely made her freeze.

Amanda and Hannah were still way above her – they were going to check to see if the beast had any weak spots while Akko tried to distract them – so they were not an option to fall back on. Somehow gathering her thoughts, Akko tried again.

“Hello!” She cried. She wondered if all the heads heard her. Maybe she should’ve learned that megaphone spell before coming here. “How are you doing?!”

None of the heads spoke. They just stared.

“Ehm, did you know that you’re walking towards a big building and that it’s dangerous for a lot of people for you to walk there?!” She tried going straight to the point. Maybe the heads would understand and...

**‘She kind of smells like the egg, doesn’t she?’** One of the heads, the rightmost one, opened its mouth. It sounded like a female. Her voice was hissy, like one would imagine a snake’s voice to be.

**‘I think I recognize her scent too...’** Other head said, this time it was the second to the left. This one sounded like a male, and a young one at that.

**‘She’s the girl.’** A third one said, the leftmost one. Their voices were piercing her head in an unpleasant way. ‘ **Yes, the saviour of magic.’**

The body stopped moving.

The heads mumbled and whispered between themselves. It felt strange, to have even magical creatures recognize her. Akko was used to witches and wizards doing so, and during summer break some people had come to ask her for photos and autographs, but when even great magical beings appeared surprised at her presence everything became surreal in her mind.

**‘Silence.’** The middle head spoke. Its voice was deep and imperative. Akko couldn’t really tell a gender, but she could tell it was in charge, because every head shut up and looked at it. **‘What is it that brings you here, human?’** All of the heads focused on Akko again. She realized she was sweating.

“W-well...” Akko tried not to look at Amanda and Hannah, who were already behind the heads and diving into the trees. “You see, in your way there’s this school, and we thought that it’d be nice to know that you don’t plan on destroying it or anything...” She didn’t know which head to look, so she tried to focus on the middle one. It was hard, with seven sets of eyes digging into her soul, seven mouths that could eat her in a single bite. Plus, their breath smelled like dead rats.

**‘We are only searching for a Dragon Egg. If it is not in this school of yours then you have nothing to fear.** ’ The middle head spoke. Akko smiled awkwardly.

“I see... And you wouldn’t reconsider, would you?” She tried to gain some time to think with a generic question. “I mean, Dragon Eggs can’t be _that_ good, right?”

The seven heads chuckled at the same time. It was eerie. **‘Dragon Eggs have no equivalent in this mortal world, and we will stop at nothing to enjoy the delights of it. _Nothing.’_ ** When the middle head spoke this time, there was an edge of danger to it. As if trying to push the conversation further was a horrible idea for Akko.

Akko tried to think of something else that could stop a giant beast, but she came up with nothing. As with the dragon before, she could see that the hydra was intelligent, but it was a more primal intelligence. It wouldn’t care for reasons, it had a goal and nothing would stop it until it fulfilled it.

Slowly, the creature started to move again. Akko stayed in place, not flinching when two heads passed around her. She was using all of her brain cells to think. There had to be a way to stop the hydra.

Amanda and Hannah rose from the trees. The redhead shook her head as she approached Akko. “This is not a videogame, that’s for sure.” She said sighing. “No obvious weak point.”

The brunette pressed her lips. So their trip had been a waste, what a surprise. Maybe, if she had the shiny rod, she could just use the Shiny Arc to blow the hydra away... No, she wouldn’t do that to a living being. Still, it was frustrating, not being able to do anything.

Hopefully Diana and her research had found something.

 

Diana found nothing of interest, besides the fact that hydras were basically unstoppable. Immune to magic, you couldn’t kill them unless you got their seven hearts or seven heads at the exact same time, and their scales were hard enough to pierce in the first place.

She grunted, frustrated, and closed her book with strength. The sudden noise made the other four witches in the library jump in surprise. This whole thing was her fault. She shouldn’t have let Akko remain with the egg. Maybe they could still take it away from school. No, the smell of the egg would be embedded into her room, the hydra would check it anyways, it was too late for that. Giving it away... Was not an option, obviously. Damn Akko, damn her stupid passion and her big earnest eyes. And after some research she also found out that, should the egg disappear, the hydra would get angry, becoming extremely aggressive.

The blonde hadn’t realized she was pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Diana, you’re feeling ok?” Lotte asked, leaning towards her, worried. Diana shook her head.

“No, I’m not. I can’t think of a way out of this one. Hydras are considered Great Magical Beasts for a reason. We could take the egg across the sea and it would _still_ pursue us. Now that it knows it exists, we can’t even hatch it to get out of this one.” She explained. “And I assume you’ve found nothing.” She looked at Lotte and Barbara. Both shook their heads. “And Jasminka?”

“Just how to cook dragon eggs.” She shook her head. Diana stood and started to pace. There had to be a way. All puzzles had a solution, this was no exception. What were the factors? The hydra was a little more than half a day away, the egg couldn’t be transported away or hatched, and at this moment about twenty witches remained at school, counting students and teachers.

None of that helped her.

“Maybe Akko managed to talk it out of the egg.” She said to herself. “She’s managed to do impossible things before, so why not?” Even to her that sounded extremely improbable.

Speaking of the devil, the library door opened and three witches entered with defeated expressions.

“I’m sorry.” Akko said instantly, sitting down next to Jasminka. “I don’t think we’ll be able to speak our way out of this.” She looked down, eyeing the book in the table next to her.

“It’s not your fault.” Diana said. “Don’t apologize.”

“But it is.” Her tone was of defeat. “I don’t have a familiar so I went out in the night to try and get one. If I had gotten a familiar months ago this wouldn’t have happened.” She sighed. “And now the school might be destroyed because of me.”

“Come on Akko, don’t blame yourself because of that big mean bastard.” Amanda sat too, though she didn’t look much better. The brunette just shrugged.

“You just rescued a baby.” Hannah stated. “It might have been stupid, but I think everyone would have done it anyways.” Her kind – at least half kind – comment didn’t have much effect either.

Diana sat next to Akko. “Then you prefer you’d left the egg back then?” She asked, knowing what was going to be the answer.

Akko snapped her head to look at her. “Of course not!”

“Then why are you sulking?”

There was a moment of silence. “Because I don’t want the school to get destroyed and dragon eggs taste like metal!” She cried. Everyone looked at her with confused expressions.

“Excuse me, I don’t think I heard correctly.” Diana cocked her head. Akko was not _that_ random. Probably.

But when she saw the sudden look in Akko’s eyes, the shine of mischief she got whenever she was about to do something stupid, she started to regret her decision. “Dragon Eggs taste like metal...” She looked at the book again. It was the one Jasminka had been reading. “ _’A Dragon Egg’s shell, due to the need of resisting high temperatures, are composed of different kinds of metals, along with the same material that makes up a dragon’s scales.’”_ Akko started to read, a smile appearing on her face. _“’Their magic resistance gives them an edge in flavour, too. They have a unique magical taste that can only be obtained from things that do not get affected by the natural magic in the air. To cook them, you’re going to need...’_ Diana, don’t you see?” Akko showed her the page.

Diana didn’t see.

“Sorry, I don’t quite understand...”

“It tastes like metal, it’s magic resistant!” She kept pointing at the page, now with a full white-teethed smile. Diana tried to follow her logic. Ok, it tasted like metal and it was resistant to magic. What had that to do with anything? Maybe she was just in denial and was holding onto whatever... “Diana, my potion!”

Diana gave up. “Akko, you’re not making any sense.” She stated. Akko rolled her eyes, pointing at her skirt. Diana couldn’t help but smile while narrowing her eyes. “Akko, I seriously don’t... Could you stop making that face?” She tried to avoid a chuckle as she stared at Akko’s super-serious face. The brunette let out an exhasperated sigh.

“Don’t you remember? How I messed up on Monday? How my potion transformed that metal into a sort of goo?” She kept pointing at her skirt. The idea finally connected to Diana. She raised a finger, stopping Akko from saying more as she slowly came to the realization of what she was planning.

“For the Nine Olde Witches Akko, you’re not suggesting...?”

“Of course I am!” She cried, excited. Lotte gasped, suddenly realizing what she meant. Barbara and Hannah followed. Jasminka and Amanda, however, were at a loss. “Though I still have to figure out the details...”

 

Constanze was looking through her files like crazy. Five of her stanbots were going through the physical ones, she kept looking at the digital stuff. She knew she had something that could help. The results of her research matched something else, but she couldn’t quite remember what. Helping the school was just a side quest for her, this was about _pride_.

One of the stanbots stopped looking, bringing her a page. Constanze instantly looked at it, going over the numbers. It was a study on the philosopher’s stone she had done a few years ago, right before enrolling into Luna Nova, to know how much energy...

How much energy it managed to get from a leyline in a year.

She compared the numbers to the ones in her Ouroboros’ research.

She smiled.

 

Sucy finished her potion with a smile. She usually didn’t focus on these kinds of potions; ones that caused no harm whatsoever. It was not a poison, it didn’t have any side effects on the body, as far as she knew it probably tasted like water.

But it smelled, and it smelled like dragon egg. Of course, human noses wouldn’t pick it up, which was why she had transformed her nose into that of a Moon Wolf, which were said to have the strongest sense of smell in the modern day.

Maybe it wouldn’t be able to kill the hydra with smell, but it sure as hell would be able to trick it. Now she just needed to find out exactly how she was going to do that.

 

Chariot finished seeing the last of the students off. Only she and the flying roomba remained in the entrance.

[ _And now there’s only nine that remain. If it was me I would do as Holbrook suggested and just tie them up and throw them into the leyline, away from school.]_ Croix said, her roomba moving around Chariot to look at her face. A tiny screen appeared on top of it, showing a blurry face with lavender hair.

“Sometimes you just have to believe, Croix. I don’t know if they’ll find a way to deal with this, but they’re trying their hardest.” She sat in the stairs. She was incredibly tired. “And if it doesn’t work I’ll do that, too.”

_[A believing heart is your magic, huh? I think I would’ve laughed at that a year ago.]_ Croix said with some melancholy.

“And that’s why you’re in prison.” Chariot gave the tiny screen a smirk. She couldn’t quite read Croix’s expression, but she could tell she was now angry.

_[Well I’ll let you know...]_

 

The library doors opened as the two remaining students of the school entered with confident strides.

Constanze was carrying a bunch of papers, and Sucy had a potion with her. They were surprised to find Akko and Diana discussing a plan to try and trick the hydra, but they were missing some things.

Things that Constanze and Sucy had.

 

 


	11. Power.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko does something reckless.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Diana was accompanying Akko up the stairs of New Moon Tower. Since Ouroboros was so heavy, he couldn’t be carried all the way up with brooms. Yet, despite being the one carrying the egg, Akko was considerably less worn out than her.

This plan could work. Assuming, of course, that the hydra hadn’t really tasted any real dragon eggs lately. And that Akko came alive out of it.

“Of course. This is my responsibility, right?” The brunette said without the hint of a doubt. Diana remained silent, watching her climb the stairs. She wanted to stop her, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to. Feeling impotent, she just continued on forward.

They reached to top of the tower, where a giant green magical stone floated lazily in the air. After a full year of not using it, the amount of magic it should have gathered was absolutely incredible. The leylines were more powerful than ever, yet witches could now get by with just ambient magic. The sheer power the Philosopher’s Stone held was exactly what they needed to hatch the egg.

It was exactly what they needed to save the school.

“Last chance.” Diana said unconvinced. She knew it was useless, but she had to try. Akko turned to her with a smile as she let the egg in the floor.

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry so much.” She scoffed. She took out her wand. Taking a deep breath, she put a hand in the stone. She chuckled. “It tickles.” She explained.

“That’s because of the power it holds...” Diana stepped forward. “Hey, let me help you, we can-” If Akko was going to risk her life like this, she felt like she should do the same. She was also to blame for the situation at hand.

“Sht.” Akko shook her head. “If anything goes wrong, I know you’ll be able to help me. You always know what to do.” She pointed her wand at the egg. “If Ouroboros can’t heat this magic alone, I’ll be a conductor and help him.”

“But the amount...” Diana started, but desisted. The amount of magic in the stone was such that if Akko did that she could get magically overloaded. It wasn’t likely, but it could be lethal. “Hang in there, ok?” Diana stepped back. If she couldn’t stop her, she would at least try to encourage her.

Akko gave her one last smile before casting the magic transferring spell.

 

“Think this’ll be enough?” Amanda asked, looking at the basket of silverware. Sucy examined it and shook her head.

“No, we’re going to need way more than this. Lotte! Bring the trays!” The purple haired witch yelled at the glasses-wearing girl, who was behind the kitchen counter. After a few seconds, a bunch of metal trays started shooting towards them and lining perfectly next to the basket. “It might look like much, but after trying it out, the goo produced by the failed potion of Akko reduces the volume of these things a lot. It’ll take all the metal in the cafeteria to fill the egg, probably.” She explained. Amanda nodded in understanding.

“Think this’ll work?” Hannah drew near, dropping some more silverware in the basket. “This is all I could find, we’re out of silverware.”

“With the trays it should be enough. There’s like a hundred and fifty of them.” Barbara was helping Lotte with levitation spells. “And if it’s not enough then we’ll just go get the bird’s cages.”

“Where’s Connie anyways?” Amanda asked, looking around. “She’s supposed to have a shitton of metal scraps somewhere.”

“Jasminka went to look for her, they should be back soon.” Hannah said, sitting in one of the tables. “Then all that’s left is for Akko and Diana to finish, right?”

Noises of confirmation came from the other girls. Barbara sat down next to Hannah, sighing. “If this doesn’t work what’s going to happen to Luna Nova?” She asked to no one in particular. No one answered.

“Maybe the hydra will just destroy your room and be done with it.” Sucy said, trying to keep her sense of humour up. No one laughed, but she didn’t expect them too.

Silence reigned until Constanze and Jasminka appeared with a bag full of metal scraps. Amanda looked at Sucy with inquiry.

“Yeah, it’s enough, I think.” She shrugged.

“Perfect, now let’s wait until-” Amanda started, but then hushed when suddenly the sky outside turned green. “I think that’s probably Akko.” She commented.

No one could help it, so they went to the windows to watch, and saw that the source of the light was, indeed, the top of New Moon Tower. “That looks... Dangerous. Is she going to be ok?” Lotte asked Sucy.

“Don’t look at me, Diana is the medic here.” Sucy snorted.

“Sucy, you poison her every week. If anyone knows how good her constitution is that’s you.” Lotte scolded her. The purple haired witch rolled her eyes.

“If  that’s where you’re going then yes, such a stupid thing can’t kill that brickhead.” Sucy kept looking at the tower. “Well, probably.”

 

Akko felt _alive._

The power surged through her and into the wand, shooting away at the egg at an incredible rate. She didn’t know how long this was going to take, but she didn’t mind. She wasn’t tired, she wasn’t hungry or thirsty. She didn’t blink, she didn’t breathe, the only sound in her ears was the endless rush of energy. Magic was her _everything._ It felt better than using the shiny rod; it was more exhilarating than flying. This could keep on going for an entire day and she wouldn’t even complain.

She was radiating with power and she loved it.

At one point, Diana had decided to sit down against one of the pillars. At another point, she fell asleep, but not for long. Or maybe it was for long? With the power through her body, she could barely tell the passage of time. Then, the sky turned orange. Had she really been there for like the entire day?

Her mind was expanded, too. She could feel the connection to the leyline, and saw all of its ends. She could see Glastonbury and some other places she didn’t know through it. She could tell that some witches were flying through it and if she focused enough could even see their faces. Not that she cared to do that, watching witches fly was boring. The most important part was that she could feel the magical energy from the egg. She knew how close it was to hatching, how close Ouroboros was from being born. If she could keep up this power for like just a while longer it’d be done.

Sometimes she caught glimpses of a worried Diana, but she didn’t quite understand why she would be. She was feeling great! Everything in her was-

The power stopped.

 

Diana saw Akko fall to the ground, gasping for air. Her spell cut, the philosopher’s stone stopped shining, and the brunette brought a hand to her chest, unable to form words.

Diana didn’t hesitate to rush forward. She quickly pushed Akko onto her back, using her coat under her neck to help open the respiratory tracts. Akko kept a hand on her chest, pained, her eyes teary and her face going pale.

_‘Ok, this is normal for magical overload, you know how to deal with this, you’ve read about it in countless books.’_ She tried to calm herself, but looking at her friend struggle for air wasn’t helping. Her lungs weren’t receiving air right now because they were used to functioning only on magic. She could try to ease Akko into breathing again if she casted the spell again, but without being able to speak, that wouldn’t work.

CPR is what she needed now. Well, half of that anyways, since Diana checked that her heart was still working just fine.

Not stopping to think, she pinched Akko’s nose with one hand, raised her chin with the other, and gave her mouth-to-mouth breathing.

It was a long process. Akko’s pain eased, but she couldn’t quite breathe on her own after the first few attempts. Diana did rounds of ten breaths with five seconds of rest. Each time Akko looked better, and after about five minutes, she finally started to get enough air on her own. Diana was so relieved that the strength drained from her legs. Luckily she was already on the ground.

“Thanks…” Was the first thing Akko managed to say. “I knew you could do it…”

“ _Never_ do that again.” Diana said, feeling genuine anger. Akko closed her eyes for a few seconds, and when she opened, the blonde didn’t like the look on them. “What are you thinking?”

“The egg.” The brunette said weakly. Diana looked at it.

“What about…? Oh.” Of course. The egg was, well, still an egg. That was the problem. “It’s not your fault, Akko. Maybe if we go back to doing it normally…”

“I could feel it, Diana.” Akko explained, sitting up with some effort. Her breathing was still weak, and Diana instinctively moved to hold her. “We won’t make it in time with the normal spell. I can use the philosopher’s stone to connect directly to the leyline, with that I can make it hatch in a couple minutes!” She exclaimed, though her voice wasn’t very strong at the moment.

Diana took advantage of the fact that she was already holding Akko to grab her tightly. “No way.” She said. “Akko, you were just in a magical shock, I will not allow you to go back to it. I will do it, instead.”

Akko shook her head. “If you end up like me, I won’t know how to help you.” She looked at Diana in the eyes. Diana gritted her teeth. She _hated_ those eyes, that stubbornness, that stupidity, that… Earnestness. “Let go, Diana.” Akko tried to get rid of her hands. She looked at the horizon. The seven heads of the approaching hydra were just about an hour away. Closing her eyes, Diana let go. She didn’t want to look at her friend at the moment. She heard Akko step towards the now basically empty stone. A year or more worth of magic, gone in just a day. “Ok, here goes nothing.”

Diana wasn’t able to watch as Akko casted the spell again.

 

Chariot looked at the hydra from up close.

The giant snake heads had noticed her, but they hadn’t said anything. They weren’t interested in her. They didn’t appear perturbed by her way of flying either. Below her, the red roomba that was Croix’s only way of interacting with the outside world – and under heavy vigilance from everyone around her, including tracking devices from the magic ministry – flew around the beast.

_[Well that’s strange]_ Croix said from below her. _[The magic transferring spell was done, but somehow it started again.]_

“Maybe Akko stopped to take a break.” Chariot wasn’t paying attention to anything but the giant reptile. She had noticed the glow from New Moon Tower, but she trusted Akko.

[ _Maybe, but I highly doubt it. You wouldn’t agree to go back so that I can examine things, right?]_ Croix asked in what Chariot liked to call her ‘research voice.’

She shook her head, forgetting that at the moment Croix couldn’t see her. After a few seconds, she answered. “We’re staying her about ten minutes more.”

The teacher heard the criminal sigh through the roomba. For a few seconds, she tried not to think too much about the absurdity of the situation.

_[And when we’re done, you’re sending those kids home?]_

“Yeah. I believe in them, but I can’t let them risk their lives to save the school. This isn’t on the same level as the missile crisis. If all goes wrong, the only thing lost will be a building and a few months of class.” She wasn’t exactly glad about the possibility of being out of a job for a few months, but she didn’t really have other options.

_[I see. Well, I sure hope this plan of theirs works. My lab is still in that tower, you know.]_

“Yeah, yeah, I know…”

At least, with the light chat, Chariot wasn’t _that_ worried. Croix had a way of making everything easier. When she was in the right mood, at least.

 

The dragon egg started to shine.

Akko dropped to the ground again, and this time she was unconscious.

Prepared, this time Diana didn’t take more than ten seconds to set up everything and start helping Akko to breathe again. It took another few minutes, but when she got the brunette to breathe again, she felt another wave of relief wash over her. She pulled Akko’s head so that it rested on her legs, smiling at it.

She saw the egg. It was still shining, but… Yes, that was a crack.

‘ _The first thing it sees will be his mother’_ She remembered, looking down. She had to make sure Akko was the one the baby saw, not her. Still, it looked like the egg would take another while to fully hatch.

“You idiot.” Diana felt that Akko had a fever. “All that effort and you’ll miss the hatching.” She slowly caressed her hair. It was dense and full of knots, as expected of Akko.

The egg now started to shake. More cracks appeared. A scratching noise was heard. Diana watched it with interest and excitement. “Come on Akko, wake up, you’ll miss it!” she gently slapped the brunette.

Akko coughed, opening her eyes. “Hey Diana. Thanks for saving me again.” She said weakly. Diana just took her head and turned it towards the egg. The Japanese witch instantly jumped and drew near.

“It’s glowing!” She exclaimed.

“Yeah, I can see it.” Diana chuckled.

“Diana, I’m going to be a mother! Well, kinda…”

“Yes, you’re going to.” The blonde was happy to see Akko, but she was too tired to try and engage in a conversation.

“Well, you too. You’re the one who helped me the most with this.” Was Akko… Blushing?

“Don’t be silly, I was just…” Diana trailed off as she saw the top of the egg crack further. Then, a white, scaly snout appeared, followed by a pair of golden eyes that focused directly on Akko.

The rest of the shell broke, revealing a white dragon that instantly attacked the brunette.


	12. Baby dragon.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko and friends put their plan into motion.

Akko fell backward as Ouroboros jumped on her and started licking her face with a forked tongue. From the corner of her eye she saw Diana jump towards her, taken by surprise by the sudden movement of the baby dragon, but she relaxed again once she saw the reptile wasn’t harming her.

“Hey Ouroboros.” Akko called his name. “How are you feeling? I didn’t expect you to be so… lively!” Akko laughed as the dragon kept licking her, his ticklish tongue breaking into her mouth a couple times and making her spit. Diana closed in a little, and Ouroboros examined her for a second before going back to licking her

“The first stages of a dragon’s development happen inside the egg, so that when it comes out it can already manage itself in the world. Dragons are, normally, lonely creatures. It’s a natural development for babies who are usually born without anyone to teach them how to live.” Diana explained, now sitting next to Akko. Ouroboros had relaxed a little, and was now just sniffing her body. It was about a meter long, or two if you counted the tail. The wings were folded, but Akko knew the wingspan would be of about two meters too.

“Come on, let me get up.” Akko said. She wondered if Ouroboros would talk at some point. He was probably too young, for now. He understood, however, and allowed her to stand. She stumbled, but Diana caught her.

“Thanks yet again.” Akko said, resting her weight on Diana as she took them closer to the railing, where she carefully leaned Akko against it. Akko managed to hold herself up alone, slowly recovering her strength. After being so magically charged, everything else felt kind of dull.

Except Diana’s warmth. She could still feel her mouth surrounding hers, giving her life.

“I’m only helping.” Diana said. She was smiling softly. Ouroboros had moved on to smelling the tower, and he appeared particularly interested in the Philosopher’s Stone. Akko watched it with a strange feel of pride.

“He wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you, you know. Because you helped me, because you convinced me to tell everyone else. If you hadn’t told the others, Constanze wouldn’t have made that research and…” Akko didn’t want to think about such things.

“If you hadn’t taken the egg the hydra would’ve eaten it. Akko, we can always look for another source and…” Diana didn’t continue, realizing the kind of look the brunette was giving her. Akko herself hadn’t really realized it either, but she was staring at her blonde hair moving slowly with the breeze, thinking about how elegant and pretty it looked. “What is it?”

“Just thinking about you.” Akko confessed. Diana blushed.

“You said the same thing, a few days ago.” Diana turned around, walking towards the stone. “You really know what you’re saying?”

Akko cocked her head. She tried walking, surprising herself when taking a step wasn’t that hard. She slowly moved to follow Diana, who had crouched to let Ouroboros smell her hand. The dragon licked it.

“What do you mean?” Akko didn’t really understood what Diana was implying, but maybe that was the point.

“Of course you don’t.” She laughed. “You can be so sharp at times, and so dense at others.” Standing, the blonde met her eyes. “You really, really scared me back there, you know?” She started to step closer.

“Yeah, sorry. But luckily you were there to save me!” Akko blushed when she recalled the situation. “I never thought I’d give my first kiss to you though, heh.” She laughed nervously. The blonde was now really close to her.

“I wouldn’t put that in the same category as a kiss.” Diana said in a serious tone, taking another step. Akko didn’t back down, mostly because she doubted her ability to take a step back. “But… If you would, it was also my first kiss.” Her voice turned soft. Akko’s heart started to fasten.

“Too bad I was dying at the time, I don’t think we got the chance to enjoy it.” Akko’s mind was trying to piece together what was happening. The way the orange light of the sun reflected on Diana’s hair, making it look like gold, was probably the single prettiest thing she had seen, and now her heart was downright pounding her chest.

“Would you want to enjoy it, then?” Diana raised an eyebrow.

“Well, of course. I mean, a kiss from you would probably be the best thing in the world!” The brunette claimed. Then, for the first time since last year, Akko saw Diana’s teeth through a wide smile. Her breath got caught, and she struggled to think straight.

“Then let’s try to do it once the hydra is dealt with.” Diana turned away. Akko felt like she had grasped glory and it had slipped away from her at the last second.

“Wait, so you’re saying that you’re going to kiss me once the hydra leaves?” She asked, not fully grasping the concept of subtlety. Diana stopped, sighing.

“Yes, Akko, I’m saying that.” She explained, turning to see Akko beaming at her. The brunette jumped forward, taking one of her hands.

“So that means you like me?” She asked with excitement.

“Yes, I’ve liked you for a time, I think, but I never gave much thought to it…” Diana blushed a little, not sure of how to react at Akko taking her hand so eagerly.

“So that’s what I’ve been feeling too! Now I get it!” Jumping away, Akko lifted Ouroboros from the ground. The dragon seemed a little surprised at the sudden grab, but resigned itself to its fate. “I like Diana! can you believe it, Ouroboros?” She hugged the dragon, her chest filling with warmth as the words left her mouth. The dragon seemed to sense her excitement, turning his head and starting to lick her face again, tickling her cheeks.

“Akko, we should carry the leftovers of the egg to the others.” Diana interrupted her moment of self revelation with a cold bucket of reality.

“Oh, right.” She let go of the dragon, instantly going over to pick up the shell. Diana helped, and in a few minutes they were done.

Hurriedly, they started to go downstairs, Ouroboros following them by learning to fly.

 

“Once the egg hatches, the shell will lose its magic-resistant properties and the smell will change.” Sucy explained to Croix, who hadn’t listened to the full details of the plan. She ignored the distant but nearing thumping of the hydra’s feet. “But we’re going to fill it up with this magic goo Akko discovered the other day, that in theory should taste similar to the egg, and then use my potion to give it back its smell.”

[Ah, that’s a smart.] Croix said from her roomba.

At that moment, the door of the cafeteria opened, and a couple girls followed by a giant flying lizard entered carrying a bunch of black pieces of egg shells on her hands.

“Hey.” Akko said hi, approaching the table they had set up to work comfortably. She eyed the cauldron where they had been accumulating the goo, keeping a constant influx of it and having Jasminka mix it so that it wouldn’t harden yet.

“Well that’s cool.” Amanda instantly looked at the dragon. Ouroboros smelled the air and decided to try and perch itself on Akko’s shoulder, which led to the brunette almost falling to the ground.

“We can worry about Akko’s new pet later.” Hannah was pouring the last batch of goo in the cauldron. “We need to fill those shells now or you better start figuring out how to make this cauldron pass for an egg.” She said, some urgency to her voice.

Diana nodded and, after letting down her own share of the egg remnants, aimed her wand at it.

In a few seconds it was reconstructed, except for a piece at the top. Every witch in the room instantly turned to the cauldron, and together, they carried the heavy object and slowly poured its contents inside the half finished egg. “There’s some leftover, anyone hungry?” Amanda asked, earning a few chuckles. “Man, the kitchen fairies are going to kill us once this is over.” She sighed.

“I am certain they will comprehend our motifs.” Diana argued, placing the last piece of the egg where it belonged. Once it was closed, she tried to lift it with magic, but couldn’t. “This is as far as magic will help us. Sucy, are you ready?”

“Of course I’m ready.” The creepy witch approached the egg and dropped a vial of purple liquid in it, then used her hands to spread it all over the surface of it. Ouroboros sniffed it, putting a face of disgust. Akko sniffed it too, but didn’t smell anything. “Don’t even try, Akko, it’s not perceptible to humans.”

The brunette was slightly disappointed.

“Well, now all that’s left is to carry it.” Barbara looked at the egg with curious eyes. “It does look exactly the same.”

“Let’s hope it tastes the same too.” Chariot appeared with a little cart. Boosting her own strength with magic, she picked up the egg and put it on top of the wheeled thing. “Now girls, stay inside, I’ll deal with the-”

“I’m coming too!” Akko jumped towards the door. “This was all my fault after all!”

Chariot smiled gently, shaking her head slowly. Akko raised an eyebrow, not sure of what that meant.

Diana stepped next to Akko, taking her hand. “Akko, if you go outside, Ouroboros will follow. Don’t you think the hydra will notice something’s off if the egg is next to the dragon that came out of it?” She asked.

Akko’s face changed from confused to realization and ended in worry. “Ok, fine. But if anything happens…”

“Don’t worry, Akko.” Chariot patted the brunette’s head. “I know your idea will work, trust in yourself a little more.”

And with that, she hurriedly exited the cafeteria through the outside door.

 

“What’s up with all the handholding?” Amanda teased after they sat down to wait. Most girls were nervous, and Diana hadn’t realized she was still holding Akko’s hand. She didn’t fully understood why she had grabbed it in the first place. “You said you weren’t banging her.” She raised an eyebrow, wearing a self-confident smile.

“And what about you and Hannah?” Diana replied, taking the redhead by surprise. “Going on a date, coming back late at night. Then Hannah this morning ran after you out of worry…”

The look in Amanda’s face was priceless. She blushed, looking at Hannah comparatively red face. Diana felt herself smile, despite how tired she was.

Sucy looked at the four witches with a smirk, as if she was already planning the kind of comments she would throw at them. Lotte and Barbara appeared surprised, but they ended up in their own heads with dreamy expressions. Jazminka was eating, unaffected by the conversation, and Constanze had stood and approached the windows with some kind of weird periscope.

Croix – or, her roomba – stood near the door, making sure none of the girls dared leave.

And then, the thumping that had become stronger finally stopped.

 

At the edge of the forest, chariot stood in front of the hydra. In the dim light of twilight, the giant figure looked particularly menacing.  The dark trees only hid its body, but Chariot knew that if it wanted it could step on her and kill her without even thinking.

All seven heads bent down, sniffing the air. Seven pairs of emerald green eyes looking straight at her.

**‘She has the egg’** Said a female voice, but Chariot couldn’t make out which head had spoken.

**‘Is she giving it to us?’** A male voice followed. All of them had a hissing quality to it, dragging the S sounds.

**‘Hey, human, are you giving that egg to us?’** A third voice, a little deeper than the last, asked. Chariot was about to answer with an affirmative when a powerful voice boomed.

**‘Silence!’** This time, she was certain the middle head had spoken. Chariot gulped, trying – and failing – to not think about the fact that any of these giant snake heads could eat her whole in a blink. **‘Human, is this an offering you’re making to us?’**

Taking a deep breath, Chariot spoke with energy. “I bring you the egg so that you may leave us alone!” She yelled, though not sure why. Hydras had decent hearing.

The middle head moved a little closer, closing its eyes and sniffing the egg with particular effort. Chariot was sweating bullets. _‘Please let it work please let it work please let it work’_ she kept repeating in her thoughts as a mantra. After a good thirty seconds of this, the head opened its mouth and a forked tongue shot out, grabbing the egg and pulling it back.

It was instantly swallowed.

The head took a few moments to re-open its eyes, and then it moved up. ‘I thank you for your efforts, human. You have saved us some trouble.’ It said.

“So…” Chariot didn’t really know what to do next. “How… was it?”

**‘Delicious. A little heavier than I remembered, but it is surely just a side effect of not having eaten it in so long…’** It started to turn around, as if the comment wasn’t really directed to her in the first place. Chariot backed off, watching quietly as the giant reptile slowly walked away, its feet thumping and making the ground tremble.

The red-haired woman’s legs gave up, and she fell butt first into the grass. She started to laugh.

Well _that_ had been something!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes plans actually work, ok?


	13. End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter, no need for a summary.

Akko sat in the stands, along with students who either didn’t have familiars or had forgotten to turn in their applications. In the field, all the ones that had turned in theirs were having fun with all sorts of animals.

“It’s not fair.” She repeated for the hundredth time. The students around her grunted in desperation.

“Akko could you _please_ stop saying that?!” Sarah, with her long red hair, gestured broadly with her hands. “We’re all without familiars, seriously!”

“But I just got my familiar last week!” It wasn’t fair that, even though the event had been pushed back a week, the application day hadn’t. “And it’s the coolest out of everyone!”

“Ouroboros is just a pet, Akko, not a familiar. You don’t summon him, he’s just… There.” Sarah pointed at the dragon, who was sleeping quietly besides the brunette.

“You’re just jealous.” Akko stuck out her tongue. Sarah rolled her eyes, not pushing the matter further.

Absent mindedly, Akko scratched Ouroboros’ head. Her friends’ familiars were out and about, of course. Diana’s unicorn was being admired by everyone. Sucy’s rattlesnake was creeping on Hannah’s bunny, but then Barbara’s squirrel showed up to help its fluffy friend. Lotte’s wolf was making friends with some other dogs. Amanda had an eagle that was racing some other birds, while Jasminka’s bear sat and received nervous hugs from many students. Constanze, apparently, didn’t have a familiar, but she hadn’t come to see them either.

She still enjoyed watching all the cute animals, and if she wanted she could go meet them, but the problem was that Ouroboros wasn’t allowed near the other familiars.

So, she sat, quietly watching her friends enjoy the company of all the animals. But she didn’t feel all that left out, after all, her dragon was the coolest animal of them all.

 

Familiar day ended, animals returned to wherever they came from, Diana sat alone in her room, going over some documents. She had been given the task of filing reports on the hydra, despite the fact that she had only seen it from afar. Chariot, Akko, Amanda or Hannah would’ve done a much better job than her.

But she wasn’t mad, because it gave her an excuse to invite Akko to her room.

The knocking on the door made her spring to her feet and walk eagerly to the door, composing herself before opening it. The red eyed brunette waited at the other side, smiling. Behind her, the now familiar figure of the white dragon stood out from the dark floor.

“Come on in, Akko.” Diana invited, letting Akko in. “Hello Ouroboros.” Diana smiled at the reptile, who grunted in acknowledgement.

Closing the door, Diana went back to her desk. The room was now back in its usual layout, and Akko took seat by the bed, while the dragon decided to take the couch for himself. The blonde pretended to look at some other documents while Akko accustomed herself to being in her room again.

Diana’s heart was beating quickly and strongly, but she somehow managed not to blush. Despite her promise and confession last week, she had not yet found occasion to actually sort things out with the brunette. With the authorities and teachers’ questions, other students praising her yet again and overall a less stressful but equally tiring version of what had happened after the missile crisis, she had been way too busy.

Not today, though.

“So, you needed me to describe you the hydra again, right?” Akko asked. Diana noticed she was slightly red on the face and smiled. She stood up and shortened the space between them, sitting next to Akko in the bed. Akko didn’t move. “Well, it was-”

“Akko.” Diana hesitated for a few seconds before just taking the brunette’s hand and intermingled their fingers.  “Do you remember what I said last week?”

The brunette nodded, not able to form words. Diana smiled, thinking she was cute. Somehow, the hydra incident had made it clearer for her that she did like Akko, and with this somewhat new knowledge she also found enjoyment out of the fact that the brunette was still very innocent in matters of the heart.

“Do you want me to do it now?” She asked, squeezing the other girl’s hand. Akko looked up at her, embarrassed but determined.

“Yes.” She said confidently. So earnest, so simple and so beautiful.

Unable to hold herself back, Diana leaned forward, softly pressing her lips against Akko’s. She wasn’t experienced with kisses, and neither was the brunette, but both of them were rather fast in getting that moving their lips would make the entire experience more interesting.

When they separated, they did it slowly, almost reluctantly. Diana hadn’t even noticed that she had closed her eyes. “I like you.” Diana said after a few seconds of silence.

“I like you t-too.” Akko smiled at her, and then looked around uncomfortably. “Ehm, can we, you know-” She was cut off by another kiss from the blonde, but after the initial surprise, she let go of Diana’s hand and put her arms around the blonde’s waist. Diana liked the feeling of being hugged by Akko, and she brought both her arms up to lock them around the brunette’s neck.

Ouroboros snored quietly a few meters away from them, unaware of his caretaker’s situation.

 

Hannah was relaxing in a bench in the west side of the courtyard, tired from the day’s activities. She had been very careful to hold back while near Amanda; the redhead had way too much power in her. While unlikely, their relationship had proven to be an interesting one. Amanda was fun to be around, and she didn’t look particularly affected by Hannah’s sassy attitude. Of course, the fact that one of them could wear a suit and look like the hottest human around was a big plus for the auburn-haired witch.

This was a problem, because Hannah had never been in a relationship and every second apart from Amanda felt like hell. She didn’t want to admit this, however, so instead of following her to her room and sleeping with her – which wouldn’t have been much of a problem, if she really considered it – she had decided to sit outside and relax.

“Can I sit?” A familiar voice asked. Hannah nodded, looking at Jasminka as she sat next to her, eating apples from a bag. Hannah often wondered how she got all that food, and how much money it could cost. More importantly, she ate way too much for how she looked. Sure, she was chubby, but she should have been rolling, or dying of a heart attack every five seconds. “Your bunny was cute.” The pink haired girl commented between bites.

“Thanks, your bear too.” Hannah wasn’t sure how to take Jasminka’s company. If not much of a talker, the Russian witch always had this aura of kindness to her that not even Lotte could surpass. She was approachable and Hannah was one hundred percent sure there was no one in the world who could hate her.

“How did you and Amanda start dating?” The girl asked. The question took Hannah by surprise. She eyed Jasminka, looking for some sign of jealousy or anger. Was she somehow bothered by the fact? Maybe she liked Amanda too, or saw her as a kind of sister, or something.

She found nothing, however. “Why do you want to know?” She asked, still a little suspicious.

“She’s been happier lately.” The chubby girl said. She didn’t continue, as if that answered everything. With a sigh, Hannah smiled. Maybe she needed to start paying more attention to the other girls in her circle of friends.

Then, she told the story. Well, the story of how she got to date Amanda wasn’t that long, but she had to contextualize it. It took the remaining of the afternoon.

 

At dinner, Akko was restless, and not only because everyone was staring at the dragon resting at her feet.

Diana had told her that their relationship didn’t have to be a secret, but that she didn’t really want to make it obvious either. That meant that even if the blonde was sitting next to her she couldn’t kiss her in front of everyone like she so much wanted to.

Still, Diana had asked her, so she didn’t have much of a choice. She still had the lingering sensation of an afternoon full of kissing. The blonde had suggested they could go further, but Akko had been way too nervous about the possibility of someone catching them.

She was still confused by how they had inverted their roles during that moment. Apparently, when Diana was horny, she forgot about the fact that she was still the top student at Luna Nova and probably the best witch in the past millennia.

Now she wished she had taken the offer. Nobody had bothered them, and more importantly, now she couldn’t stop imagining it. When Amanda was the one to make the suggestion it had been bad enough. When Diana did it, though…

She felt the blonde grab her hand.

“We’ll get another chance.” Diana whispered. “For now, you should eat before it gets cold.” She pointed at the food tray in front of Akko. Sighing, the brunette nodded. Worrying about sex now wouldn’t really help, and she was really hungry.

However, as she ate, she didn’t let go of Diana’s hand.

 

Chariot sat in her desk, scoring tests. With all the mess of the hydra she had forgotten about them, and she needed them scored by tomorrow.

A roomba floated next to her, reading scores laid out across the desk and telling her what the scores should be so that she could do it faster. With about a hundred yet to go, she was going to have to stay up until midnight, maybe even later.

She sighed in frustration.

 _[You should sleep, if you’re feeling tired. I could finish these up for you and when you wake up you can just score them all in a rush]_ Croix offered.

Chariot shook her head, smiling. “Thanks, but no. These are my students, I should look at as many of them as I can.”

 _[Always so diligent and honest, in the past you wouldn’t have thought about it before taking the chance of slacking off]_ Croix reminded her, some sadness in her voice.

“You should stop that.” Chariot said, finishing another test and taking the next one.

 _[Stop what?]_ The roomba turned to focus on her. The red-haired teacher didn’t look at it, but she knew the Croix on the screen would be confused.

“Stop looking back, Croix. We’ve changed, and that’s ok.” She marked an error on the current test. “Instead of reminiscing the past, focus on the now. Or, well, for you I’d suggest to focus on the future. When you come out of jail you can focus on the now.” Chariot smirked.

 _[Wow, thanks, really reassuring]_ Croix said sarcastically. _[Not that I have much to look forward to anyways. As long as I can keep my research I don’t mind where I am.]_

Chariot paused for a second. “Don’t you look forward to seeing me again?”

 _[What do you mean? You come by every two weeks, and with my Sorcery Unit right there I can see you all the time too.]_ She sounded confused. Chariot shook her head in disappointment. Of course she wouldn’t… _[But that’s just what I tell myself, anyways]_ Croix continued. _[I want to be with you as a free woman, after all.]_

Chariot looked at the screen, smiling. “That’s going to take some time, though.” She said, going back to her scoring.

 

 

Diana and Akko walked through hallway of the second floor.

All of their friends had already went to their rooms, except for one tiny little detail: Hannah, after Amanda convinced her, had gone to the green team’s room, and Barbara hadn’t asked Akko before declaring that she was taking her bed because she wanted to have a ‘Nightfall night’ with Lotte. Somehow, Ouroboros had understood Lotte when she told him to follow her.

This, of course, left Diana’s room empty for the night, besides the blonde herself.

“Are you sure you’re ok with this?” Diana asked Akko.

“Well, I did want to sleep on one of those comfy beds of yours.” Akko shrugged. Diana would have believed that Akko hadn’t understood the question if not by the expression on her face, obviously awkward.

“Come on, let’s hurry, then. I’m sure those beds will get you to sleep in no time.” The blonde hurried her pace, taking Akko’s hand and dragging her along.

Akko, despite her reservations, smiled.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	14. A room for two (Part two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the lewd chapter.

As soon as they stepped into the room, Diana turned around and pressed her lips against Akko, pulling her closer. Akko somehow managed to close the door before starting to move and take off her uniform.

The only clothes remaining in both of them by the time they reached Diana’s bed was underwear.

Diana was the first to hit the bed, sitting down. Akko straddled her legs, feeling for the first time higher than the blonde as she felt her libido increasing. She rested her arms on Diana’s shoulders, inviting.

Diana placed both of her hands on her waist, firmly at first, but then she slowly caressed her sides, which made Akko start to chuckle. It tickled, after all. The blonde seemed to find this cute, since she then started seriously tickling Akko’s tummy. “D-Diana, stop!” Akko said trying to catch her breath. Diana did stop, but then she took hold of Akko’s waist and pulled her closer, kissing her in the lower chest, burying her face in Akko’s boobs.

Akko ran her hand through the blonde’s hair, feeling each kiss send electricity through her body. Then, Diana’s hands moved up, grabbing her bra from behind and undoing it. Akko’s heart was beating so fast that she could barely think as she allowed the piece of clothing to be taken away from her. Diana gently pulled Akko until her back was against the wall. The brunette wanted to see her naked too, but her focus right now was on how the blonde was looking at her boobs with interest, which made Akko’s face burn up.

“W-what?” She asked with slight discomfort.

“You’re just so… Perfect.” Diana said, placing a kiss on one of her tits, making Akko squeak with surprise. Then, Diana parted lips and sucked a little. Akko moaned at the sudden wave of pleasure, but Diana stopped, looking up with worry. “Sorry, did that hurt? I’m not-”

“It felt great, don’t worry.” Akko encouraged. Diana looked relieved, and then she kissed Akko’s other tit, repeating the process.

With Akko’s whole areola in her mouth, Diana used her tongue. Inexperienced as she was, she still had studied enough anatomy to understand a little of what she was doing. Akko moaned. Having only touched herself once before, this was an entirely new – but welcome – experience.

Diana kept sucking on her breasts – alternating between them from time to time – while she moved her hands down, slowly pulling on Akko’s panties’ waistband.

This left Akko’s bushy pussy exposed. Diana didn’t even look at it before gently brushing the hairs with her fingers, making the brunette forget how breathing worked for a second. “You’re not really wet, are you?” Diana said, touching some more. Akko looked down, grunting with the touch.

“I don’t really… Sorry.” She didn’t exactly know why she was apologizing, but Diana shook her head.

“There’s nothing to apologize for.” The sitting girl said, bringing her other hand up to stroke Akko’s cheek. “It just means I get to play more with you.” She used a voice Akko had never heard from her before. She didn’t dislike it.

Diana then looked down. She brushed the hairs some more, finding enjoyment in the sensation. She then moved, guiding Akko down towards the bed. Once she was laying down, Diana took her panties off completely and threw them next to the bra in the floor. She placed her head between Akko’s open legs, her warm breath stimulating Akko’s crotch. She placed a kiss inside Akko’s right thigh, slowly moving up the leg. The brunette was starting to feel self conscious about the fact that she was so hairy. She should’ve shaven earlier when she had gone to the bathroom in her room, but she hadn’t thought…

Diana finally placed her lips atop Akko’s lower ones. Akko could feel Diana’s breathing through her pubes, but the sensation soon got overshadowed by the tongue.

It was careful. Slow, it started by just carefully slipping between the outer lips. Diana looked up while doing so, seeing Akko struggling to keep her breathing under control – and failing miserably. Akko felt the slick muscle work its way around her vestibule, starting by going up. When she felt the touch on her clitoris she yelped, not able to hold back a bigger moan, a current of electricity making her brain numb for a few seconds. Then, Diana started to go down again, zigzagging all the way, stimulating Akko’s insides in a way that she never imagined could be possible. When Diana reached the vaginal entrance, her tongue wormed its way inside the vagina slowly. Akko felt her hymen slowly stretching, and knew the blonde was being careful to avoid hurting her.

But this was going to drive her nuts.

The brunette was in a void of sensitivity and moaning, her only connection to the world at the moment being through the tongue inside of her, arching her back and grabbing tightly to the maroon sheets of the bed. The tongue went in and out, doing rounds around the rest of her crotch before going back inside, sometimes pressing on her clitoris to make things more painfully pleasuring.

That was the point when Diana backed off, smiling. Akko looked at the blonde with pleading eyes, begging for her to continue. Diana nodded, moving up in bed, her head on level with Akko’s boobs. She then placed her hand on Akko’s pussy and teased her entrance with her middle finger. “You’re wet now.” Diana smiled. Akko met her blue eyes and found pride in them.

“Please continue.” Akko pleaded. Diana nodded, slowly slipping her finger inside Akko’s vagina. Akko clenched, making Diana smile again as she slowly worked inside.

Both of them knew, from the brunette’s instant loud moan, when she found the G-spot. _‘Oh no.’_ Akko thought.

 _‘Oh yes.’_ Diana’s face said.

She pressed it further. Akko cried out.

Diana kept going. She moved her finger around, bringing it deeper into her, moving it in circles, applying pressure everywhere. Her own wetness working as an effective lubricant, the irregular breathing, constantly cut off by the need of moaning or just breaths getting caught in her throat, and finally, the look on Diana’s face, it all compounded into what Akko knew was going to be her first orgasm.

She couldn’t stop the loud cry as she clenched tightly around Diana’s finger, tensed her shoulders and pulled on the sheets below her.

Panting, Akko waited until her eyes focused again. Her breathing steadied little by little, and when she was finally able to think like a normal human being again she noticed Diana lying besides her, head against her shoulder.

“Is there anything you’re _not_ amazing at?” Akko asked with a smile.

“Driving hydras away.” She replied, and Akko chuckled.

“So, now it’s my turn, right?” The brunette asked with a tired voice.

“If you’re too tired you don’t have to push yourself.” Diana lifted herself by the elbow, pecking Akko’s lips.

“But I want to make you feel good too.” Akko smiled, making Diana blush slightly. “ _Now_ you blush?” Akko asked, amused.

“Well, you’re just so… cute.” Diana placed another kiss on her.

This was enough to make Akko snap out of her dizziness. Now, how had Diana sucked on her breasts…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you reached this, or if you just read this, thanks for reading it!


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